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THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



FOUNDED ON THE 



NATUEAL AND INALIENABLE EIGHTS OP MAN, 



AND CONTAINING 



THE OUTLINES OF SUCH A GOVERNMENT AS 
THE PATRIOT FATHERS CONTEMPLATED 
AND FORMULATED IN THE DECLARA- 
TION OF INDEPENDENCE, WHEN 
STRUGGLING FOR LIBERTY. 



/ 



/■■? 



E. J. SCHELLHOUS, M. D. 



" The true Republic is not yet here. But the birth-struggle must soon 
~begin. Already, with the hope of her, men's thoughts are stirring."— 
Henry George. >^T* . 








S3^ FRANCISCO: 
BACON & COMPANY, PRINTERS, 

NO. 508 CLAY STREET. 
1883. 



2-fk 



Copyright, 1883, 
By E. J. Schellhous. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE. 

To the Reader 5 

The Presentment 11 

CHAP. 

I. Definitions 15 

II. Outlines of the New Republic 25 

III. A Brief Review of the Struggle for 

Liberty 33 

IV. History of the Federal Constitution, 

and an Account of the Leading Men 
who Advocated and who Opposed It 39 
V. The Articles of Confederation and the 

Federal Constitution 62 

VI. History of Political Parties in the 
United States, and the Evils of Par- 
ty Spirit 77 

VII. Review of our Judiciary System 91 

VEIL Stock Operations, "Rings," and " Cor- 
ners" 113 

IX. Natural Rights Considered. — Land 

Tenures ! 125 

X. Natural Rights Considered (Contin- 
ued). — Finance 133 

XI. Natural Rights Considered (Contin- 
ued).— Banking System. , 151 



IV CONTENTS. 

XII. Natural Rights Considered (Contin- 
ued). — Transportation 159 

XIII. Natural Rights Considered (Contin- 
ued). — Communication 168 

XIY. Natural Rights Considered (Conclud- 
ed). — Education 176 

XY. Labor and Capital 195 

XYI. Tariff 217 

XYII. Corporations 241 

XYIII. Qualification for Citizenship 268 

XIX. Nature and Uses of Government 280 

XX. Difficulties Considered 304 

XXI. Summary 313 

Synopsis of the New Republic 327 



TO THE READER 



It may seem like unwarrantable presumption 
for a single individual to put forth his efforts to 
restore to the people their rights by effecting 
the requisite changes in our government. If I 
presumed upon my own power or personal influ- 
ence, such presumption would not only be un- 
warrantable, but ridiculous. 

My appeal is to you in a common cause ; it is 
to your sense of right, your love of justice ; it is 
in behalf of the innocent, helpless victims to the 
overpowering greed of corporate rapacity ; it is 
to that just and laudable pride that comes from 
self-respect and claim to the dignity of true man- 
hood and womanhood. 

I appeal to your sense of duty, that ever- 
present but often feeble voice that speaks to all, 
that our destiny and happiness are inseparably 
connected with others ; that we can help ourselves 
only as we help others. 

I wish to remind you that our interests are 



t) TO THE READER. 

one ; of the power of unity ; of the necessity of 
unanimity of thought and feeling and the concert 
of action. 

I wish to remind you of the tactics of our 
oppressors, whom we must regard as enemies, 
in keeping the people distracted, by exciting 
mutual hatred, and arraying faction against 
faction and interest against interest, and thus 
secure an easy victory. Presuming upon their 
superiority, they take government matters in 
their own hands, furnish candidates committed 
to their interests for you to elect, and claim that 
the best must rule. This is an insult that de- 
serves the most indignant contempt. 

The work here presented for your considera- 
tion is radical — it goes to the root of the matter. 
Those who live upon your toil would make the 
science of government complicated, intricate, ab- 
struse ; they would fain convince you that it 
is beyond your capacity to understand. The 
weakest and most contemptible fear is that 
which arises from ignorance. Confront any one 
with a problem of which he is profoundly ig- 
norant, and convince him that his welfare lies in 
its solution, and two things will result : unbound- 
ed confidence and respect for the one who lie 
thinks can solve the problem, and a feeling of 
utter dependence on him. It is for you to be 



TO TPIE READER. 7 

able to solve the problems of free government ; 
then self-respect and self-confidence will secure 
your independence. 

They would have you leave the business for 
them to manage. They would have you accept 
as authority the accumulation of past ages 
derived from monarchical countries for them to 
interpret and apply, which is virtually saying : 
"You produce the wealth : that is your business ; 
we will enjoy it : that is our privilege. We will 
give you just enough of it to live and work. 
That will secure two things : first, it will enrich 
us ; and second, it will keep you so busy in earn- 
ing your share, that you will not have time, 
means, nor opportunity to study these intricate 
questions that require a lifetime of research to 
understand." And soon, as they know, you will 
feel no disposition to study them. Unremitting 
and constant contact with hard physical force 
hardens the heart as well as the hands, and dulls 
the intellect as well as deadens the sentiments. 
Thus the producers of wealth — those who expend 
their energies, waste their lives, and blunt all the 
finer and nobler attributes of human character to 
create the millionaires' wealth — are regarded as 
the rabble, mud-sills, or, in their more polite 
language, the lower classes. 

They would entice you into the mazes and 



8 TO THE HEADER. 

labyrinths of "Political Economy " and " Juris- 
prudence." as expounded by some " great " man, 
and awe you into submissive silence, by inform- 
ing you that none but "great men" and pro- 
found statesmen can understand these wonderful 
sciences — the accumulation of the wisdom of 
ages. 

These, I say, are their tactics. We are bound 
and entangled and mystified ; they have woven a 
network of sophistries around us, and point to 
our inability to comprehend them, thus holding 
us in perpetual bondage. I do not propose to 
solve these mysteries: they cannot do it them- 
selves ; but I propose to lay them aside as im- 
practicable ; to ignore these theories and specu- 
lations. However truthful and applicable they 
may have been or may be to monarchical gov- 
ernments, they are foreign to a republican gov- 
ernment, and therefore useless to us. In proof 
of this, I present facts and conditions as the legit- 
imate outcome of these theories in this volume 
— of usurped power, of untold wealth in f6w 
hands, of an impoverished people, of the rule of 
avarice, of despotic cruelty, of political chicanery, 
of corruption in high places and poverty in low 
places, of insolent arrogance on the one hand 
and servile submission on the other ; — these are 
the fruits of corporate conspiracy to rob and 



TO THE READER. 9 

plunder in a legal way ; for it is a fact of 
alarming significance that there is nothing done 
or being done, however damaging to the people's 
interest and fatal to republican government, hut 
what is in strict accordance with the constitution 
and laws of the land. 

I have shown that the principles and processes 
of republican government are simple and com- 
prehensible, as all great truths and principles are 
when stripped of the verbiage that misleads and 
mystifies. Otherwise republican government is 
a myth, an impracticable dream, and the sooner 
we know it the better. 

Herbert Spencer is a profound thinker. He 
stands confessedly at the head of modern scien- 
tists. Not long since, he spent several months in 
the United States, and on the eve of his depart- 
ure for England he gave his opinions of Ameri- 
can institutions. He said : " The republican form 
of government is the highest form of govern- 
ment, but because of this, it requires the highest 
type of human nature — a type nowhere at present 
existing. We have not grown up to it, nor have 

you." 

There is deep significance in these words. 
Let us profit by them. Let us have not only the 
intelligence to perceive the cause of our political 
downfall, but have the courage to assail it with 



10 TO THE READER. 

destructive weapons. The revolution here pro- 
posed is not a bloody conquest, but a change 
from bad to good, from vice to virtue, from slav- 
ery to liberty, from despotism to freedom. Let 
the ballot in the hands of intelligence, prompted" 
by the love of justice and guided by wisdom, be 
the isilent but potent weapon for its accomplish- 
ment. I have shown that all depends on the 
qualification of the ballot-holder. It is for the 
people to use and show to the world that self- 
government is not only possible, but practicable. 

E. J. S. 



THE PEESENTMENT. 



" Ye build! ye build, but ye enter not in, 
Like the tribes whom the desert devoured in their sin; 
From the land of promise ye fade and die 
Ere it gleams forth on your wearied eye." 

" Who would be free, 
Themselves must strike the blow." 

To the People of the United States. 

The time has now come when all true men 
and women can move forward in one unbroken 
line, vindicating and protecting their natural 
rights as set forth in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Your interests are indentical, your 
opportunities for action are free and ample, and 
your duties are plain and imperative. 

A confederation of corporations has usurped 
the sovereign functions of this government, and 
exercises them for its sole use and benefit, 
thereby resolving it into an oligarchy. 

The many are made to serve the few. In- 
dustry is made to enrich idleness. Capital 
created by labor has gained complete control 
over it, and holds it in its relentless grasp. 



12 THE PRESENTMENT. 

We declare that the principles upon which 
this government was founded have been ignored 
and superseded by a system whose essential fea- 
tures are borrowed from the British Govern- 
ment. 

Instead of equality, we have class distinctions 
founded on wealth. 

Instead of a medium of circulation to carry on 
the industries of the country by equal exchange 
and equitable distribution, we have a limited cur- 
rency controlled by corporations for their special 
benefit. 

Instead of a system of land tenure that would 
secure homes for the people, we have a land 
monopoly already grown to an alarming extent, 
and still increasing. 

Instead of fair and equitable rates for trans- 
portation and travel, we have ruinous discrimina- 
tions, and extortion beyond all reason, justice, or 
precedent. 

Instead of labor controlling its own interests, 
and regulating its relations to capital, it is, 
by aggressive avarice and relentless tyranny, 
trampled upon, the rights of laboring men and 
women ignored, and they are being reduced to 
hopeless poverty and servile dependence upon it. 

Instead of honest representation and faithful 
public service, we have a system of political 



THE PRESENTMENT. 13 

machinery that manipulates nominating conven- 
tions, secures the election of their candidates, 
and by lobbying and bribery controls the legis- 
lative, executive, and judicial departments of the 
government. 

As a consequence of these unjust measures 
and usurped powers, the vast majority of the 
people are made to pay tribute to the few^ 
whereby immense wealth accumulates in their 
hands, by which class distinctions are built up, 
and aristocracies are founded at the cost of the 
wealth producer. 

There is no good reason why any should be 
compelled to long and monotonous labor ; to toil 
without recompense, save that of a bare subsist- 
ence, a condition that deadens stimulus, and ban- 
ishes all expectation and aspiration for anything 

higher than to be the sons and daughters of in- 
to o 

cessant toil. 

To liberate yourselves from the tyranny of 
capital, to break the bonds that enslave you, to 
strike off the fetters imposed by the bandit-chiefs 
of the Stock and Grain Exchange, and the rob- 
ber-leaders who organize parties into machines, 
is your work. 

Let us demand Justice that secures Equality ; 
Equality that secures Liberty; Liberty that se- 
cures Happiness ; for Happiness is the end and 
aim of human existence. 



THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITIONS. 

" 'Tis coming up the steeps of time, 

And this old world is growing brighter ; 
We yet may see its dawn sublime, 
For high hopes make the heart throb lighter." 

Government in the sense of political science 
is an agreement, expressed or implied, to con- 
form to certain regulations by a body of people 
having common interests and a common country. 
It is based on man's social nature and mutual 
wants ; and has for its object the regulation and 
protection of its citizens in the full and free ex- 
ercise of their natural rights, privileges, and op- 
portunities. 

Some uniformity and concert of action, some 
common sentiment finding expression in law and 
the various institutions of a country, are indispen- 
sable to the very existence of society. This 



16 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

truth has given rise to the adage, " Bad govern- 
ment is better than no government." 

Government, being a national association 
founded on mutual interests and mutual depend- 
encies — an organized system of procedure — and 
necessary to secure these interests and the bene- 
fits of co-operation in the pursuit of mutual 
advantages, requires legislative and executive 
powers. 

When these powers are exercised in the inter- 
est of a few, who, by the force of custom and 
false education, hold the many in subjection, such 
government is Despotism ; when they are exer- 
cised by the people through an organized system 
of representation, such government is & Republic. 

These two modes of government constitute the 
base upon which all the various forms of govern- 
ment among mankind are founded. The one is 
based upon assumed, usurped, vested power ; the 
other upon natural rights. The former demands 
submission to superiors, the latter obedience to 
well-regulated institutions ; the one for the ag- 
grandizement of the few, the other embraces 
the good of all. 

(1) A republican government is founded 
upon the natural rights of the people, and has 
for its sole object the regulation of those rights 
and the protection of the people in their full and 
free exercise. 



DEFINITIONS. 17 

(2) Human rights are based upon the necessi- 
ties and requirements of life, and consist in a 
natural claim to the means of obtaining them ; 
the essential conditions of which are personal 
liberty, physical sustenance, and mental free- 
dom. 

(3) As life is of divine origin, so are the rights 
necessary to maintain it: and those means by 
which all its purposes are accomplished are 
equally divine. These rights are inalienable, 
and as sacred as life itself, because their full and 
free exercise is essential to the accomplishment 
of life's purposes. 

(4) The right to live carries with it the right 
of personal liberty, the means of subsistence, 
and the development and culture of all the intel- 
lectual, moral, esthetic, and spiritual powers and 
capabilities of the individual ; and as all have 
the right equally to live, so all have the right 
equally to its prerogatives, means, and possibili- 
ties. 

(5) Since the capacity to enjoy liberty, to ac- 
quire the means of subsistence, and the natural 
capacity for mental development and spiritual cul- 
ture are within certain limits, with the free exercise 
of these natural rights, the status of the individ- 
ual in such conditions, physically, intellectually, 
morally, and spiritually, would correspond with 



18 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

such capacity ; and equality of conditions within 
these limits would be established in a government 
founded on natural rights. In other words, 
the status of equality would be commensurate 
with the natural capacity of the people in the 
full and free enjoyment of such rights. As the 
limits in physical stature, strength, and endur- 
ance are comparatively narrow, with like de- 
velopment and culture, all the mental attributes 
would be within the same narrow limits, and 
natural equality would be the result. 

The struggles and miseries of life have arisen 
chiefly from the denial of these natural rights ; 
and the usurpation of powers founded on the 
idea of a divine right to rule still prevails in all 
civilized countries, under the name of vested 
rights. Whenever natural rights have as- 
serted their claiftis, " vested rights," holding the 
supremacy, have overpowered them, and thus 
kept mankind in submission. 

Contending usurpers have involved nations in 
war, either to support dynasties or for conquest ; 
and the wealth produced by the toiling millions 
has been squandered to satisfy the demands of 
ambitions pomp, luxury, and avarice. These are 
the fruits of despotism. 

On the other hand, under a government that 
secures the exercise and enjoyment of natural 



DEFINITIONS. 19 

rights, each one would hold and enjoy the wealth 
he produces. The result would be the prosper- 
ity, advancement, and happiness of the people ; 
whereas, the result of " vested rights," exercised 
by the few, is war, with all its attendant evils, the 
burdens of which are borne by the people, but 
the glory, wealth, and power go to the few ; in- 
cessant toil, poverty, and slavery of the many, 
and idleness, luxury, and dominion to the few. 

Thus it is seen that usurped powers vested in 
governments, formulated in constitutions, com- 
manding obedience by the authority of law, and 
exercised for the benefit of the usurpers, must 
antagonize natural rights, and the results are 
inordinate wealth, tyranny, and oppression on 
the one hand ; and poverty, debt, ignorance, 
crime, degradation, and misery on the other. 

In our country, all vested powers, derived 
from the idea of a divine right to rule, have been 
proscribed in the Federal Constitution, but have 
been more than supplied by powers vested in 
corporations for private enterprise, under the 
authority granted by law, which have usurped 
and now exercise the sovereign functions of gov- 
ernment for their sole use and benefit, and by 
their power dictate all the affairs of government 
and control all its sources of wealth. A govern- 
ment thus based upon assumed vested rights can 



20 THE NEW EEPUBLIC. 

never be u a government of the people, for the 
people, by the people." Power emanating from 
the people, and delegated to their representatives 
for exercise, must remain under the people's con- 
trol and subject to their will. 

" Government is nothing more than a national 
association, and the object of this association is 
protection, as well individually as collectively. 
Every man wishes to pursue his occupation and to 
enjoy the fruits of his labors and the produce of his 
property in peace and safety, and with the least 
possible expense. When these things are accom- 
plished, all the objects for which government ought 
to be established are answered." — Paine's Mights 
of Man. 

There is but one general principle that distin- 
guishes freedom from slavery, which is, that all 
vested power is to the people a species of slavery, 
the degree of which corresponds with that" of the 
power vested and exercised ; and delegated pow- 
er truly and faithfully exercised in a government 
is freedom within the scope of popular govern- 
ment. The power is in the people, not in their 
public servants ; in those who pay, and not in 
those who are paid. 

The prevalent idea is that the government is 
the power and the people are subject to it ; 
whereas, the true idea is that the people are sov- 
ereign, and that the government is the prescribed 



DEFINITIONS. 21 

means for regulating their rights and protecting 
them in the exercise of them, and their official 
agents are subject to their control. A simple 
application of this idea will determine whether 
our government is a republic or not. If the 
greatest good is secured to the greatest number ; 
if the subdivision of land is so regulated and 
occupancy so protected that all citizens who desire 
it may have homes upon it ; if all who produce 
wealth can hold and enjoy it; if transportation, 
travel, and communication for intelligence are se- 
cured at the cost of service; if in elections the 
voice of the people is fairly expressed; if the 
burden of revenue is borne by all according to 
their ability to pay ; if labor and capital are 
united in one common interest ; if social and 
educational institutions secure to the people the 
greatest blessings they are capable of giving — 
then we have a republican government. 

Such was the government contemplated a 
hundred years ago by the patriots. Inspired by 
the love of liberty and the divine heritage of 
human rights, they struggled with almost super- 
human efforts, endured indescribable hardships, 
and made heroic sacrifices to gain for themselves 
and transmit to posterity the highest and noblest 
of earthly blessings — liberty, equality, fraternity, 
justice, secured by popular government. 



22 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

But before such government could be fully 
formulated and set in operation, and during its 
brief existence, by the intrigues and machina- 
tions of the enemies of free government, its 
aims were diverted and its purposes defeated. 

To show how far popular rights have been 
usurped, the following instance is given : In the 
last Congress an amendment to the post-office 
bill was offered, which provided, first, for an 
amendment to the charters of the Union and 
Central Pacific railroads ; and second, for the 
reduction of compensation for carrying the 
mails on old-subsidy-and-land-grant railroads to 
fifty per cent of the rate paid on roads built by 
private capital. The arguments in support of 
the amendment were, that as the government 
had virtually built these roads by donating to 
corporations land and subsidy bonds amply suf- 
ficient in amount to cover all costs of construc- 
tion and equipments, it had the right to de- 
mand the transportation of the mails over them 
at cost. 

But the argus eyes of corporations saw that it 
would never do to acknowledge the right or 
power of the government to lay its finger upon 
a corporate prerogative, no matter how justly 
or how much the public good demanded it ; so 
through its Democratic mouth-piece, Abram S. 



DEFINITIONS. 23 

Hewitt (son-in-law of the venerable Peter 
Cooper), in a tone of holy horror it wanted to 
know " if the House felt prepared to begin the 
work of confiscating private property, which, 
when once approved by a vote of the House, 
would proceed with fearful strides until it ended 
in a logical result — communism." 

Through its Republican organ, Mr. Caswell, it 
was more defiant, and declared that the amend- 
ment would be inoperative, as it was a blow at 
the vested rights of those corporations, " which 
could not be taken away or invaded by Congress" 

Any regulation for the reduction of rates for 
transportation on those roads which were virtu- 
ally built by the people is declared " confisca- 
tion of private property," resulting in " commun- 
ism." 

This from the Democratic side of corporate 
power; on the Republican side, "a blow at the 
vested rights of corporations, which could not 
be taken away or invaded by Congress " ! 

The definitions here presented show the ne- 
cessity and importance of the people in taking 
immediate and determined action in the estab- 
lishment of a government in which they will 
realize the blessings that justice, equality, and 
liberty give. The time must be near at hand, 
when the people, whose rights have been denied 



24 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and their powers usurped by a confederation of 
corporations, will arise in their might, arouse 
their slumbering energies, and resolve that to 
secure the natural and inalienable rights they- 
will demand such a government as will secure 
them ; " laying its foundations on such principles 
and organizing its powers in such form as to them 
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and 

' happiness Where a long train of abuses 

and usurpations, having invariably the same ob- 
ject, evinces a design to reduce them to absolute 
despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw 
off such government, and provide new guards for 
their future safety." This right, this duty, is as 
sacred and binding now as it was a hundred 
years ago 

The issues now involved are essentially the 
same; we have, however, this advantage: the 
foundation which they established, the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and the ballot, with which 
we may regain our liberties. The foundation is 
acknowledged by all, and the ballot is in the 
hands of enough to express the intelligence and 
enforce the will of the people, which constitute 
the power of the government. It only remains 
to test that intelligence and moral force of the 
people's will, for there is no obstacle that intelli- 
gence and moral power cannot overcome. 



OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 25 



CHAPTER II. 

OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

" What constitute a state? 

Men, high-minded men, 
With powers as far above dull brutes endued, 

In forest, brake, or den, 
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; 

Men who their duties know. 
But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain; 

Prevent the long-aimed blow, 
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain ; — 

These constitute a state." 

A government founded on the natural rights 
of the people must have a system by which their 
will can be fully and fairly expressed. 

This requires political jurisdictions of two 
kinds ; for organizations, like individuals, must 
have prescribed limits. First, primary, in which 
the people have direct and personal control over 
their local affairs. By this local government, 
the construction of roads, bridges, and the 
erection of buildings for public use, as schools, 
lyceums, and for public entertainment, conduct- 
ing educational matters and all domestic affairs, 
are under the direct control of the people. The 
administration of justice in all civil and criminal 
matters, the abatement of nuisances and all other 
2 



26 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

concerns of a local character, are managed 
directly by the people in their local jurisdictions. 

Second, representative, because of the extent 
of country and population, and the common in- 
terests arising from the combinations of local 
governments, the powers are delegated to agents 
who represent the people in their interests. 

Sovereign control is to be exercised in these 
jurisdictions in matters pertaining to them respect- 
ively : in local, by the people direct ; in the rep- 
resentative, by delegates elected by the people. 

The primary jurisdictions extend to convenient 
limits, and unite to form county jurisdictions 
whose interests will be served by representatives. 
This is the first representative jurisdiction. 

Another, embracing the State, also represented 
by delegates elected by the people, would be the 
second. This body of delegates will have 
charge of all the interests of the State, and tha 
regulation of all affairs in which the people of 
the State have a common interest. 

The highest representative jurisdiction will 
embrace the whole country, and the delegates 
for it will be elected by the people of the re- 
spective States, and their powers and duties will 
embrace all the interests of the people in the 
capacity of a General Government. 

Each of these jurisdictions will exercise a 



OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 27 

separate and independent sovereignty. Sover- 
eignty pertains to unity, and each unit has sover- 
eignty over its own interests. In all that be- 
longs to a primary jurisdiction, its sovereignty is 
distinct and complete, and does not conflict with 
any other. So of a county, a state, or the 
nation. 

The sovereign powers of the nation will be ex- 
ercised by a legislative and executive department, 
which will be prescribed by a constitution, which 
will also contain provisions for other offices in 
the government, and for the election of officers, 
prescribing their duties and relations to their 
constituents. 

The state governments will be constructed on 
like principles, with sovereign powers co-exten- 
sive with their respective jurisdictions. 

The county governments will be merely ad- 
ministrative, and their sovereign powers will be 
commensurate with their respective jurisdictions. 

Primary jurisdictions will regulate all local 
affairs within the limits of the state and national 
government. 

Thus a scheme of government simple in its con- 
struction and easy of comprehension will secure 
all the purposes for which popular government 
is instituted, originating directly from the peo- 
ple and under their absolute control ; the powers 



28 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

delegated will return to the people at the expira- 
tion of the term of office. 

Having outlined the general system of repub- 
lican government, the most important subjects 
for consideration are the qualifications of citizens 
and the modes of election. The character of a 
government is that of the people composing it. 
If they have no true conception of just govern- 
ment, no just government can exist. The pow- 
ers of government are inherent in the people, 
and for the purpose of exercise, are intrusted or 
delegated to some of their number. If these 
powers are so conferred as to be controlled by 
the delegates and beyond control or recall by 
the people, republican government ceases and is 
changed to despotism. 

The first qualification of a citizen is a willing- 
ness to concede to others all that he demands for 
himself. This implies justice and equality, with- 
out which republican government cannot exist. 

The second qualification for citizenship is a 
disposition and determination, at all times and in 
all places, to support the rule of the majority, 
when fairly and properly expressed. This is the 
authority of government. 

The third qualification is intelligence and 
moral appreciation. A clear comprehension of 
the principles of government and its purposes, 



OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 29 

and the duties of the citizen, are indispensable. 
This is the power of the government. 

The fourth qualification embraces those attri- 
butes that fit the individual for the social duties 
of life, for government is a national association. 
These constitute the benefits of government, for 
it is by it that they are enabled to become gen- 
eral. 

These qualifications are required of all, regard- 
less of sex. The rights of women are equal with 
those of men. Since government is founded on 
rights, it becomes as necessary to one sex as to 
the other ; for the question of sex does not in- 
volve that of rights. 

The power for good is the love of those attri- 
butes that secure it, applied by the guidance of 
wisdom. This power is all-sufficient for man's 
purposes. It will overthrow despotism and cor- 
ruption ; it will emancipate the people from 
ignorance, poverty, crime, and misery. It will 
bring to realization the dreams of the philoso- 
pher and the hopes of the humanitarian. 

It is attainable, not by conquest, but by the 
exercise of those attributes that constitute the 
true citizen, through the instrumentality of the 
ballot. 

It comes not with the sound of the trumpet 
and the clash of arms, but by the gentle and 



30 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

peaceful exercise of thought. It is ours when 
we command it, without cost or sacrifice, and of 
more value than wealth and pomp and dominion 
combined. Justice is its basis, equality its con- 
dition, and liberty, peace, and prosperity its bless- 
ings. 

All it asks is the liberty of appearing ; all it 
needs is the appreciation of the people. But so 
deeply rooted are the existing systems of the 
governments of the world, and so strongly have 
tyranny, the reverence for antiquity, and the slav- 
ery of fear wrought upon men, that it is difficult to 
overcome their influence. To eradicate error or 
remove prejudice is more difficult than to instill 
truth and inspire confidence in receptive minds. 
To realize this truth is the first step in this great 
work, and no greater or more important work 
can engage the mind and labor of man. 

Having outlined the general system of repub- 
lican government and the qualifications of its 
citizens, it is important to consider a just method 
of election. The voice of the people must be 
fairly and honestly expressed. In order to do 
this, the representatives must be elected by the 
people in their respective jurisdictions, without 
regard to lines of subdivision ; that is to say, 
all the officers of a county must be voted for 
without respect to district lines, those of a state 



OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 31 

regardless of county lines, and those of the na- 
tion irrespective of state lines. 

One month before the final election, let there 
be held a primary election, with all the binding 
force and safeguards that the law can give. 
Let each voter express his or her choice for a 
candidate for office freely ; and let there be as 
many candidates as the people desire to vote for. 
When these votes have been officially canvassed 
and reported, let all candidates be dropped ex- 
cept those having the highest number of votes 
aggregating a majority of the party voting for 
them. At the final election, each party will 
unite on one or more candidates who will be the 
choice of the majority of his party. 

Where a number of officers of the same kind 
are to be elected, as supervisors, commissioners, 
and legislators, let the number of votes in the 
jurisdiction be divided by the number of officers 
to be elected, and the quotient be termed a 
quota. When a candidate receives a quota of 
votes, let him be declared elected. Then each 
party will concentrate its whole force on as many 
candidates as it can elect, for more than that 
would defeat its candidates. Thus each party 
would have a proportional representation. 

With a government thus founded, constructed, 
and represented, the people of the United States 



32 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

would be the most powerful, prosperous, and 
happy nation on the globe, requiring neither 
strife nor blood to attain such conditions. 

One hundred years of experience, with the aid 
of history and the present condition of existing 
nations, ought to be a sufficient guide to that 
happy consummation. 

Wisdom, justice, and humanity dictate it; ad- 
vancing civilization requires it ; and an enslaved, 
robbed, and impoverished people demand it. To 
break this thralldom and maintain popular free- 
dom is the first and most important duty, and the 
highest privilege of this oppressed, impoverished, 
and enslaved people. 

Let all who think, who love liberty, justice, 
and humanity, resolve to accomplish this great 
work ; and the toiling millions, struggling in 
their poverty and now sinking into pauperism, 
with grateful voices will bless the workers ; com- 
ing generations will sing their praises, and the 
glory of a moral heroism far surpassing any dis- 
played on the field of battle will give worth and 
splendor to the names of those who did it. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 33 



CHAPTER III. 

A BRIEF REYIEW OF THE STRUGGLE FOR 
LIBERTY. 

"The man that is not moved at what he reads, 
That takes not fire at their heroic deeds, 
Unworthy of the blessings of the brave, 
Is base in kind, and born to be a slave." 

The love of liberty is inherent in every sen- 
tient being. The condition of liberty is essential 
in the accomplishment of life's purposes. In the 
wilds of the new continent, and yielding to the 
impulse of freedom, the colonists were not slow 
in developing its spirit and enjoying the sweets 
of unrestrained activity. But the tyranny that 
drove them from their native land followed them 
to their new homes, and with insatiable lust 
sought to replace its shackles upon them. For 
more than a hundred and fifty years this struggle 
went on. Inspired only by avarice and the love 
of dominion, Great Britain resorted to every 
means for her own aggrandizement at the expense 
of the colonists. And yet the colonists main- 
tained a loyalty to the mother government with 
wonderful pertinacity. But the accumulation of 
wrongs proved too much for even such loyalty. 
2* 



34 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

The colonies were made a source of immense 
revenue to the mother country, and the struggle 
to throw off British tyranny was as intense and 
determined as the spirit of the colonists had been 
patient and indulgent ; and the long contest ended 
in the acknowledgment of the independence of 
the United States by Great Britain in 1783. 

It was not until 1754 that any effort was made 
to confederate the colonies for mutual defense. 
In that year, the first movement for a confedera- 
tion of interests in the colonies was made for 
defense against the threatened invasion of the 
French and in support of the home government. 
The next was in 1765, in which a Declaration of 
Eights was published, but nothing further was 
done. The first suggestion of an independent 
movement was made in 1774, and the first Con- 
tinental Congress was held in Philadelphia in Sep- 
tember of that year ; and in October following 
a Declaration of Eights appeared, in which nat- 
ural rights were considered to some extent, and 
representation in their colonial government de- 
manded, and a protest against certain usurpations. 
The result was expressed in the following words : 

" 1. To enter into a non-importation, non-con- 
sumption, and non-exportation agreement or as- 
sociation. 

" 2. To prepare an address to the people of 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 35 

Great Britain, and a memorial to the inhabitants 
of British America. 

u 3. To prepare a loyal address to his Majesty, 
agreeable to resolutions already entered into." 

But the stirring events that intervened between 
that act and July, 1776, prepared the people for 
that grandest of all Declarations. For sublimity 
and heroism it transcends anything ever accom- 
plished by man ; and for the interests involved 
in humanity no deeds of men approach it. " We 
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
are created equal." The necessary condition of 
equality is justice, and justice among men pre- 
cludes the necessity of charity, for those only re- 
quire charity who suffer from injustice. 

" That they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights." Bold and sacrilegious 
is the power that deprives them of these rights. 
Emanating from a divine source, they are them- 
selves divine, and their deprivation by force or 
fraud is a crime. 

" That to secure these rights governments are 
instituted among men." This is the legitimate 
object of government. 

" Deriving its just powers from the consent of 
the governed." All power derived from other 
sources is despotism. Consent implies volition, 
and a government sustained by such power must 
necessarily be free. 



86 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

" That whenever any form of government be- 
comes destructive of these ends, it is the right of 
the people to alter or abolish it." 

This is the right of all rights. It protects the 
people from the odious charge of revolution in 
any change of government they see fit to make. 
It is as legitimate to alter or abolish a govern- 
ment as to enact laws in support of it. 

"To institute a new government, laying its 
foundation on such principles, and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness." 

By this declaration the right to build up in 
any form u most likely to affect their safety and 
happiness is conceded.'' It ignores all authority 
outside of the people, and leaves them free at any 
time to " alter or abolish " and institute a new 
government. 

Upon these principles a government was par- 
tially founded, but in the pressure of events and 
the condition of the country, it was for a time left 
incomplete. Sovereignty is an essential condi- 
tion of complete unity. 

In 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the 
Articles of Confederation. It was a compact of 
States ; it was not national. It served, however, 
to tide over the struggle and set the people upon 
an independent basis. It was required to exer- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. dT 

cise sovereign functions of a national character. 
It was not endowed with that sovereignty. It 
needed completing, and had it been clothed with 
national sovereignty, the inestimable blessings of 
free government would have been secured to the 
American people, just as these principles were, as 
ratified in 1778. 

In the Articles of Confederation the States were 
regarded as beinu endowed with absolute sov- 
ereignty, and the Confederation as an agreement 
to " be inviolably observed by every State." A 
government that extends its jurisdiction over the 
whole in all matters which concern the interest 
of the whole, or which relates to intercourse with 
other powers with which it is connected, must pos- 
sess sovereignty over the acts it is required to 
perform and the interests it is required to pro- 
tect. This defect in the then existing form of 
o-overnment led to a call for a revision and amend- 
inent of the Articles of Confederation, the his- 
tory of which will be presented in the next chap- 
ter. 

Thus the struggle for liberty ended in a brief 
but brilliant victory. Its fruit, which promised 
to nourish the famishing millions, was turned to 
bitter ashes, which only impoverishes by its hol- 
low pretensions. 

While liberty itself is lost, the name remains, 



38 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and since its blessings have never been felt by 
this generation, its value is not estimated. Inces- 
sant toil and privation stultify the mental powers 
and impoverish the spirit. 

A condition that requires the whole time and 
energy to procure the necessary means of sub- 
sistence defeats the very purposes for which life 
is given. 

The true purpose of life is to develop and cul- 
tivate to their highest capacity all the powers 
and attributes of body and mind, thus rounding 
out the individual to full and harmonious propor- 
tions ; but this is impossible under existing con- 
ditions, because the whole energies are exhausted 
in procuring a bare subsistence. 

This condition is virtually slavery — a condition 
incompatible with the purposes of life and the 
happiness of mankind. The attainment of liberty 
which involves the reconstruction of government 
is the work of the people, without which life and 
the pursuit of happiness are but idle dreams. 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 39 



CHAPTER IV. 

HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, 
AND AX ACCOUNT OF THE LEADING MEN 
WHO ADVOCATED AND WHO OPPOSED IT. 

** God of mercy ! must this last ? 

Is tills land preordained 
For the present, as in the past. 

And the future, to be chained ; 

To be ravaged, to be drained, 
To be robbed, to be spoiled, 

To be hushed, to be whipped, 

Its soaring pinions to be clipped, 
And its every effort foiled ? " 

There has been no period in the history of 
the world in which popular government was so 
nearly in the balance as in 1787, when the Federal 
Constitution was framed and adopted by the 
convention in old " Liberty Hall." 

Long years of struggle for liberty, with vary- 
ing success, had prepared the friends of freedom 
throughout the world for a determined resist- 
ance to the encroachments" of usurped rights, 
and strike a blow that would effectually destroy 
its power on American soil, and give civil liberty 
an abiding place for all time to come. 

Only in their possession for a brief period, and 



40 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

before the plan for preserving it could be ma- 
tured, the " eternal vigilance " so strenuously 
urged by its master spirit was relaxed, and the 
opportune moment was seized by the supporters 
of aristocratic government, who decided the fate 
of that memorable struggle, until the accumu- 
lating evils of vested powers in giant corpora- 
tions will drive the people to another revolution, 
unless the wisdom and resolution of the present 
generation shall, by peaceful means, avert so 
terrible a calamity. 

In 1777 the Continental Congress agreed upon 
the Articles of Confederation to secure a united 
resistance to the measures of Great Britain in 
holding the colonies in subjection to her control. 

In the excitement of war — and during its 
darkest period for the colonies — these Articles 
were framed and agreed to ; but when the war 
was over, and the busy pursuits of industry super- 
vened, the vigilant activity and artful schemes 
for aristocratic rule succeeded in substituting in- 
stead a system of government beyond the power 
of the people to control. 

Among the leading men of this period and for 
this work was Alexander Hamilton, ambitious, 
active, energetic, talented, and brave, and fully 
imbued with the spirit of aristocratic supremacy, 
and without any faith in the people's capacity 
for self-government. 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 41 

At the close of the war he entered into politics 
and became the acknowledged leader of the Fed- 
eralist, or aristocratic, party, the basic proposi- 
tion of which is that " in all civilized countries 
the people are naturally divided into two classes : 
the one, the few, the rich, the well-born ; the 
other, the many, the poor, the laboring masses." 
[This passage is approvingly quoted by Garfield, 
and credited to Hamilton. ] 

It will be remembered that deputies were sent 
to Annapolis in 1786 to revise the Articles of 
Confederation. Mr. Hamilton was a deputy 
from New York, and drafted an address to the 
State, which led to the convention by which the 
Federal Constitution was framed. 

M The prevailing party in the New York legisla- 
ture was little inclined to any material increase of 
authority of the Federal Government. Hamilton 
was appointed one of the delegates to that conven- 
tion to revise the Articles of Confederation, which 
met at Philadelphia in the following May. He had, 
however, two colleagues, who together controlled the 
vote of the State, of decidedly opposite opinions." 
— American Cyclopedia. 

Two projects were brought forward in that 
body : one known as the Virginia plan, which 
contemplated the functions of a national govern- 
ment, with a legislative, executive, and judiciary 
of its own. 



42 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

Edmund Randolph of Virginia introduced a 
bill early in the proceedings of the convention, 
providing for a national government, but it under- 
went so many changes by amendment that he 
refused to support it, and finally, not only voted 
against the Constitution on its final passage, but 
used all his influence to prevent its ratification in 
his own State. This resolution gave rise to what 
is known as the Virginia plan. 

Mr. Paterson of New Jersey introduced a res- 
olution likewise, which had in contemplation the 
revision of the existing Articles of Confederation. 
His resolution having been rejected, Mr. Ran- 
dolph's resolution, which had lost its original 
character by amendments, finally grew into the 
present Constitution of the United States. 

" Mr. Hamilton set himself earnestly to work to 
incorporate his views of government into the 
organic law of the nation. As between the two 
plans above referred to, he strongly advocated the 
former, and sought to make it as strong as pos- 
sible. His scheme included an Assembly to be 
elected by the peoj)le for three years ; a Senate to 
be chosen by electors, to be chosen by the people, 
to hold office during good behavior ; and a Gov- 
ernor chosen also for good behavior, by a similar 
but most complicated process. The Governor was 
to have an absolute negative on all laws, and the 
appointment of all officers, subject to the approval 
of the Senate. The Governors of the States were 
to be appointed by the General Government, and 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 43 

were to have a negative on all state laws. The power 
of declaring war and ratifying treaties was to be 
vested in the Senate. He insisted in establishing 
a national government so powerful and influential 
as to create an interest in its support, extensive 
and strong enough to counterbalance the state gov- 
ernments and reduce them to subordinate impor- 
tance." — American Cyclopedia, 

In this scheme we recognize many important 
features of the existing Constitution, especially 
in creating a Senate and the manner of choosing 
it ; in the Executive, and the mode of his elec- 
tion, his veto power, and many other features 
calculated to give strength to the Federal Gov- 
ernment, as the immense patronage granted to 
officials and the control and disposition of pub- 
lic domain by Congress and the power vested 
in that body to create charters for individual 
enterprises whereby capital is amassed in the 
hands of the few to control the industrial inter- 
ests of the people. These, with other vested 
powers, separate the people from the government, 
and give it a power beyond their control. This 
is virtually a surrender of popular government 
into the hands of usurpers. 

The " self-evident truths " enunciated in the 
Declaration of Independence, which fired the 
hearts of the patriots, were ignored and set aside, 
and a scheme opposite in its tendency adopted in 



44 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

that convention ; and liberty, which had so re- 
cently won a brilliant victory on the field of bat- 
tle, suffered an ignominious defeat in the attempt 
to secure its blessings for all coming time by the 
incorporation of its principles into a popular gov- 
ernment. 

Upon the adjournment of the convention, Ham- 
ilton addressed himself with all his energies to 
secure its adoption ; and soon there appeared a 
series of articles in a New York journal entitled 
"Federalist," in fupport of the new Constitution, 
and against the various objections in opposition 
to it. These articles reached the number of 
sixty-five, and exerted a strong influence on the 
scheme of government embraced in the Federal 
Constitution. 

Under its provisions, he had the opportunity, 
at the head of Washington's first cabinet, to set 
in operation his favorite schemes of government. 
Among these were banks of issue, with Which he 
had been connected many years. He immedi- 
ately went to work to fund the national debt and 
establish a United States bank. 

''Both the funding system and the bank were 
denounced 'as instruments of corruption, danger- 
ous in the highest degree to the liberties of the 
people, and Hamilton as designing, by their means, 
to introduce aristocracy and monarchy.' " — Amer- 
ican Cyclopedia. 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 45 

He charged these attacks upon Jefferson, and 
urged the inconsistency of his holding a place in 
the administration which lie assailed. Jefferson, 
on finding Hamilton's influence in Washington's 
cabinet predominant, retired from it. 

James Madison was a strong and active Fed- 
eralist at the time of the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution, and was in favor of vesting Congress 
with a power to exercise a negative in all cases 
whatever on the legislative acts of the States, " as 
heretofore exercised by the kingly prerogative." 
He was a strong advocate for the ratification of 
the Constitution, and joined Hamilton in the 
authorship of the series of articles entitled " Fed- 
eralist." But in 1792, while a member of Con- 
gress, he changed his views, and became the 
avowed leader of the Republicans ; and in 1798 
drew up the resolutions for Virginia, as Jeffer- 
son had for Kentucky in the same year, to coun- 
teract the tendency of the alien and sediticion 
laws passed in Adams's administration, known as 
the " Kentucky Resolutions. " 

Robert Morris was a man of great wealth 
and a stanch Federalist. AVhen the first vote 
was taken on the Declaration of Independence, 
lie voted against it (July 1, 1776), and on its 
adoption he refused to vote, urging that it was 
premature. He afterward contributed largely 



46 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

to the support of the war; at one time issuing 
his notes to a large amount, which, however, was 
all paid. He warmly supported Hamilton in his 
views of government, and worked for the Consti- 
tution in the convention, and for its ratification 
in his own State. 

John Rutledge and the two Pinckneys of 
South Carolina were active and influential Fed- 
eralists, so were Governeur Morris and Roger 
Sherman, who were all members of the Constitu- 
tional Convention, and seemed to realize the ne- 
cessity of withholding the control of the govern- 
ment from the hands of the people. 

It is important in this connection to say that 
these men w r ere as much interested in the separa- 
tion of the colonies from the home government 
as any engaged in the struggle. During that 
struggle there were three classes of men who 
felt a deep interest in its outcome. First, the pa- 
triots, with the spirit of liberty glowing in their 
breast, cheerfully and hopefully endured hard- 
ships, and made sacrifices, deeming nothing too 
costly in exchange for liberty. Second, a class 
of ambitious men fully imbued with aristocratic 
ideas, regarding the English theory of govern- 
ment as the nearest to perfection, and the great 
mass of the people as incapable of self-govern- 
ment ; that " the few, the rich, the well-born," must 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 47 

rule " the many, the poor, the laboring masses." 
The third were the tory class, who sympathized 
with the English side of the struggle, and secretly 
aided them all in their power. Their political 
views were of course like the second class ; and 
when England acknowledged the independence 
of the States, they accepted the situation and 
united their fortunes with that class then known 
as the Federalist party. They realized the im- 
portance of the issue, and determined — no doubt 
with honest intentions — to secure the fruits of 
the separation by assuming the reins of govern- 
ment, thereby practically ignoring the rights of 
the people. 

In opposition to the Federalists, who contended 
for a government with power so vested as to be 
beyond the reach of the people, were the patriots, 
of whom Thomas Jefferson was the true type and 
avowed leader, reduced to a minority in the con- 
vention by the united influence and wealth of the 
Federalists and Tories. 

The majority proceeded to set aside the Arti- 
cles of Confederation which they had been called 
together to revise, and seizing the golden oppor- 
tunity, with closed doors and secret sessions, 
after four months' of stormy and angry debate, 
brought forth the body of the Federal Constitu- 
tion ("the first seven articles), and in the latter 



48 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

part of the year 1787 submitted it to the States 
for ratification. 

In connection with this period, the following 
account of Mr. Jefferson's character, as fur- 
nished by the American Cyclopedia, is here pre- 
sented : 

" The character of Mr. Jefferson as a man and a 
statesman is easily deduced from the events attend- 
ing his career. He was an original thinker in every 
department of human concern, and essentially a 
reformer. In this will be found the explanation of 
his life. He had no respect for claims of right 
founded only upon prescription, and attached no de- 
cisive weight to authority. In the General Assembly 
under the Commonwealth, he attached the time- 
honored system of aristocratic and religious intoler- 
ance as in open conflict with natural right, and for 
that reason wrongful, however fully acquiesced in 
and respected by preceding generations. This want 
of reverence for king, parliament, and aristocracy 
accompanied him to the cabinet, and dictated his 
opposition to England. 

u He carried everything to the test of abstract rea- 
son into matters of religion. Discarding faith as 
unphilosophical, he became an infidel ; thus present- 
ing the remarkable spectacle of a man of powerful 
mind and amiable disposition deeply venerating 
the moral character of the Saviour of the world, 
but refusing belief in his divine mission. 

" In politics, Jefferson, from native bent of intel- 
lect, was the opponent to strong government, and 
always maintained that the world was governed too 
much. He was in favor of the free development of 
the exercise of human power, so far as was consist- 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 49 

ent with the good order of society, and a jealous 
advocate of individualism. This fact colored and 
shaped his whole political theory. The strength 
of his convictions is obvious in the nature of the 
changes which he made in Virginia law, in regard 
to which he says : c I considered four of these bills, 
passed or reported, as forming a system by which 
every fiber would be eradicated of an ancient or fu- 
ture aristocracy The repeal of the laws of 

entail would prevent the accumulation and perpet- 
uation of wealth in select families. The abolition 
of primogeniture and the equal partition of inher- 
itances removed the feudal and unnatural distinc- 
tions which made one member of the family rich 
and all the rest poor. The restoration of the rights 
of conscience relieved the people of taxation for the 
support of a religion not theirs, for the establish- 
ment was truly the religion of the rich.' From 
the prevailing character of Virginia society at that 
period, no measures could have been more revolu- 
tionary. 

" His aim was to overthrow the old domination 
of the ruling classes and raise the people. He car- 
ried the same principle to the study of the federal 
compact. Once convinced that the States-rights 
doctrine of restriction was the true theory of gov- 
ernment, he fought for it with persistent energy. 
Thus commenced on the threshold of his entrance 
into the cabinet the long struggle against Hamil- 
ton, the Federal champion. < The party which sup- 
ported the Federal Constitution,' said Jefferson, ' was 
aristocratic and monarchical, desirous to draw over 
us the substance as they have already drawn the 
forms of the British government.' .... 

c; In social life he faithfully carried out his demo- 
cratic principles. Born in a class which then en- 



50 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

joyecl a prestige and authority resembling that of 
the higher castes of India, he discarded every ad- 
vantage which his birthright gave him, and mingled 
familiarly with the common people, as their equal, 

and no more He was naturally a democrat, 

and held as a radical doctrine that one man is no 
more than another — or rather, deserves no higher 
privileges. 

H He was opposed to the forms and ceremonies that 
characterized his predecessors in office, and abol- 
ished them to a very great extent, and aimed to do 
his work in a common-sense way and without osten- 
tation. A committee had usually been appointed 
to inform the President of his election ; but Jeffer- 
son declared it was more in consonance with the 
simplicity of republican institutions to communicate 
the intelligence through the common post-office. 
.... He was regarded as the ejritome and incarna- 
tion of democracy as opposed to the old world of 
aristocracy. In the plain, good-humored man whom 
all might approach, clad in every-day garments, 
and scarcely distinguishable from an honest yeo- 
man, the masses discovered a delightful contrast to 
the powdered and stately 'nabobs' of the past 

" In his retirement, Jefferson was as powerful as 
in office. His hand was often felt as decisively, and 
his o]3inions, instilled into active minds holding 
high j^ositions, became not seldom the ruling influ- 
ences in public affairs 

" On the question of slavery, which arose two or 
three times during his career, his views are well 
known. He regarded the institution as a moral 
and political evil: as a moral evil because it was re- 
pugnant to his cherished convictions of the equal 
rights of man ; and as a political evil from the as- 
sistance it offered to the old feudal system of aris- 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 51 

tocracy which he opposed ; and would most gladly 
have abolished the institution. 

tfi He said that the people would remain virtuous 
as long as agriculture is the principal pursuit, which 
will be the case while there remain vacant lands in 
America. ( When we get piled upon one another 
in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become cor- 
rupt as in Europe, and go to eating one another as 
they do there. 7 .... He was a tender husband 
and father, a warm friend and delightful host." — 
American Cyclopedia, loc. cit. 

Had Mr. Jefferson, who was then in Paris as 
Minister to France, been a member of that con- 
vention, there is no doubt but that it would have 
been materially changed. It is to be sincerely 
regretted that at this important juncture in our 
national affairs his commanding influence could 
not have been brought to bear, and his acknowl- 
edged ability exerted at a time and on an occasion 
the most needed. 

Edmund Randolph, with a view of remedy- 
ing the defects of the Articles of Confederation, 
early in the session introduced a resolution con- 
templating a plan for a national government* 
clothed with the necessary sovereign functions ; 
but by " amendments " it was soon transformed 
into an instrument that he not only relinquished, 
but combated with all his energy, not only in the 
convention, but in its ratification by his own State. 

George Mason took an active part in the con- 



52 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

vention, and always upon the liberal and demo- 
cratic side. He maintained that no republican 
government could stand without the confidence 
of the people, and that confidence could only be 
secured by a direct election by the people. In 
this manner he favored the election of the Presi- 
dent, and for one term only. 

"He opposed the proposition to require ^prop- 
erty qualification from voters, and spoke with great 
energy against the clause in the Constitution which 
prohibited the abolition of the slave trade till 1808, 
declaring that slaveiy was a source of national 
weakness and demoralization, and it was therefore 
essential that the General Government should have 
power to prevent its increase. In some of his 
attempts to render the Constitution more demo- 
cratic, Mr. Mason was defeated in the conven- 
tion, and when that instrument was completed 
he refused to sign it, declaring his apprehensions 
that it would result in monarchy or tyrannical 
aristocracy. He was especially dissatisfied with 
the extended and indefinite powers conferred on 
Congress and the Executive." — American Cydope- 
dia, loc. cit. 

• Subsequent experience has shown the sagacity 
and foresight of this eminent statesman, for we 
surely have a " tyrannical aristocracy." 

George Wythe joined his colleague in his 
efforts to defeat the encroachments of aristocratic 
ideas, and to support popular government. 

Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts united his 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 53 

powers with the little band of Patriots to resist 
aristocratic rule, and if possible to secure the 
blessings of a free o;overnment. He was untir- 
ingin his zeal and devotion, and gave to the cause 
all the energies of his soul. 

John Lansing and Robert Yates of New 
York worked and voted against the Federal Con- 
stitution, and when it came before their State for 
ratification, they were found still contending for 
the people's rights. 

It is only necessary to mention the names of 
the remaining number of delegates who took 
part in the proceedings of the convention but 
refused to sign it. They were Caleb Strong, 
Oliver Elsw^orth, William C. Houston, 
John F. Mercer, Luther Martin, James 
McClurg, Alexander Martin, William R. 
Davie, William Pierce, and William Hous- 
ton. The names of these sixteen illustrious 
men will serve as a protest to all coming gener- 
ations against the overthrow of popular govern- 
ment by substituting an organic law which, in« 
the language of Jefferson, " was aristocratic and 
monarchical, desirous to draw over us the sub- 
stance as they have the forms of the British 
Government." 

The power emanating from the people is vested 
in such a manner as to be beyond their control, 



54 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

because the majority of that convention had no 
faith in the people, and were determined not to 
trust them. 

The Constitution, which only assures the name 
of a republic, is made the instrument by which 
the people are held in bondage. 

The cause which inspired a heroic people, 
involving the dearest and most sacred rights of 
humanity, was defeated in the formation and 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. The scenes 
of sanguinary strife, of suffering and sacrifice, 
must be re-enacted on a still grander scale ere 
the battle for freedom is won, unless the power 
of right wielded by the potency of justice is 
evoked for a peaceful and enduring victory. 

We will close this brief account of this mem- 
orable and important struggle for a popular gov- 
ernment, which resulted in a defeat of the people, 
in the language of a prominent American histo- 
rian : 

" On the 17th of September, 1787, the grand ques- 
tion finally came up for discussion. The Constitu- 
tion was then signed by thirty-nine of the fifty-five 
members. It was next submitted to Congress, and 
by them submitted to the State legislatures, who 
were invited to call conventions to take it into con- 
sideration. The stipulation was, that it should 
come into operation as soon as nine States ratified 
it ; but this was a matter of considerable difficulty. 

"In 1787, it was adopted in conventions unani- 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 55 

mously by Georgia, New Jersey, and Delaware, and 
by large majorities in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, 
Maryland, and South Carolina. Two, however, 
were still wanting before it could be acted on ; 
hence, the Massachusetts convention, which met in 
the beginning of 1788, was viewed with intense in- 
terest. Its fate there appeared doubtful from local 
feelings and discontents. Hancock, who had been 
so conspicuous through the Revolution, strenuously 
opposed it without the admission of certain pro- 
posed amendments, by which State rights might be 
more fully guarded. It was supported by Fisher 
Ames [a prominent Federalist], and finally carried 
by the small majority of nine out of three hundred 
and fifty-five votes. 

" In New Hampshire, the greater number of dele- 
gates came instructed to vote against it, but after 
an adjournment a majority of eleven was at last 
procured. 

"The requisite number of nine States had thus 
been obtained, yet there were still wanting the im- 
portant States of Virginia, New York, and North 
Carolina, without which it could scarcely be 
brought into action. In the first, the contest was 
long and fervid, and the displays of oratory are said 
to have been greater than any ever yet made in 
America. Madison, who at that time was a Feder- 
alist, took the lead in support of the measure ; while 
Patrick Henry assailed it with eloquence almost un- 
rivaled. He denounced it as a revolution more rad- 
ical than that which had separated America from 
Britain. The convention had been delegated solely 
to amend the old federation, instead of which they 
had brought forward a great consolidated govern- 
ment, vesting in it the whole prerogatives, and 
leaving to the States merely the poor-laws, roads, 



56 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

bridges, and other trifling concerns. In the warmth 
of debate he seemed to threaten resistance if the 
motion were carried ; yet at last declared that even 
then he would remain a peaceful citizen, only de- 
voting his head, his hand, and his heart to obtain 
redress in a constitutional manner. The measure 
was finally carried by a vote of eighty-eight to 
eighty. 

kC New York, thus left nearly alone, could only 
persevere at the cost of throwing herself entirely 
out of the Union. Yet though the measure was 
supported by Jay, Hamilton, and Livingston, states- 
men of the highest character, it was carried only 
with a majority of five, and with the demand for 
the most extensive amendments." 

Within a year from the time the old Congress 
declared the Constitution ratified and in force, ten 
amendments were added; nine of which are for 
the protection of personal liberty, and the tenth 
specifies the limit of federal powers, and guaran- 
tees all power not delegated by the Constitution 
as belonging u to the States respectively, or to 
the people." 

The observant reader of the early history of 
our government will notice the sentiment of the 
leading statesmen in regard to the question of 
slavery. 

Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill in the Vir- 
ginia legislature to abolish slavery in that State, 
which was lost by a single vote, and in Congress 
he introduced a measure looking to final emanci- 
pation in 1800. 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 57 

Mr. Mason's views have already been noticed, 
and the feeling among the Republicans and some 
of the Federalists was in favor of manumission. 

But slavery was incorporated into the Consti- 
tution, and became a part of the government, 
with results calamitous beyond language to ex- 
press or human thought to conceive. The Civil 
War placed the people in the condition out of 
which it took the slave, and transferred their 
masters from the Southern plantations to the 
factory pens, machine-shops, mining pits, and 
farms of the whole country. 

The war was the result of constitutional pro- 
visions, but the cause of it was removed by vio- 
lating them. It makes no provisions against 
secession, and the first advocates of it were the 
Federalists of New England. As early as 1811, 
Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts declared that if 
Louisiana was admitted with slavery, it would 
be good cause for the Northern States to with- 
draw from the Union. Mr. Poindexter of Lou- 
isiana called him to order, and demanded his 
language to be put in writing, which was done. 
The Speaker sustained the point of order, and 
Mr. Quincy appealed ,to the House, and upon a 
vote being taken the Speaker was overruled — 
thus showing the sentiment in the House of Rep- 
resentatives at that time to be in favor of secession. 
4* 



58 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

The sole object of the Hartford Convention, 
held by the New England Federalists, was to 
take measures for secession, on account of the 
obstructions to their commerce by the necessities 
of war by a Republican administration. 

It is by powers vested in the Constitution that 
the curse of corporate rule has corrupted the pub- 
lic service, and " established dominion over mon- 
ey, over transportation, over invention, and over 
land and labor." 

The control given to monopolies by its author- 
ity or permission will grow still stronger ; and 
the liberties of the people are becoming, day by 
day, less possible. It is the instrument of tyran- 
ny and oppression, and by its provisions the ma- 
chinery of government is made to rob, plunder, 
impoverish, and enslave, instead of regulating the 
rights of the people and protecting them in their 
free exercise. 

The facts of this history are well summed up 
in the following propositions by L. A. Fisher of 
Morris, 111. In a letter to the author, he says : 

"If I read your circular correctly, your object is 
to educate the people of this country in the funda- 
mental facts of national reform guaranteed to the 
American people in that compact of Union, with 
reference to a restoration of the nation to its origi- 
nal republican base. If I mistake not the spirit of 
your field of labor, it comprises the following prop- 
ositions : 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 59 

"1. That the common blessings of Divine Provi- 
dence are the indisputable equal right of all men 
and women to enjoy. 

ci 2. That the denial of this right by the Crown 
of Great Britain constituted the main points of the 
struggle between the mother country and the colo- 
nists. 

" 3. That in the midst of this struggle, termed 
the Revolution, the thirteen colonies found that to 
carry on the war successfully it was indispensable 
that they unite in one body and work under one 
head. 

" 4. That such confederation was effected on the 
4th of July, 1776, on terms of agreement set forth 
in an arranged compact, and witnessed by the auto- 
graph signatures of the contracting parties. 

ct 5. That said act of confederation was to be 
perpetual, and form a nationality and government 
in keeping with the terms of this confederation, 
which guaranteed to every American citizen an 
equal and undisputed share in all of nature's boun- 
ties, regarded as ' endowments of the Creator.' 

" 6. That to accomplish the ends of this compact 
they saw no alternative but to cut loose from the 
parent stock and set up for themselves ; and as a 
matter of necessity this determination was made 
part of the contract. 

" 7. That such confederation should be regarded 
as perpetual, and was so intended, stipulated, and 
specified, so long as the terms of confederation were 
sacredly regarded, forming a corporate national 
base under the title of c The United States of North 
America/ and at the time assuming all the powers, 
rights, and immunities of nationality, and were so 
regarded by the nations of Europe. 

" 8. That the terms of said compact minutely and 



60 THE NEW EEPUBLIC. 

definitely specify that the administration of the re- 
sultant executive department of said nationality 
shall be in strict unison with the charter stipula- 
tions aforesaid, and that any deviation from the 
spirit or letter of said guaranties shall nullify the 
contract at the option of the aggrieved party. 

" 9. That as a matter of course the executive de- 
tails of government were to be instituted in the 
usual manner, through representative legislative 
action. When within one year, 1777, such effort 
was made under the disturbed state of the country, 
in the presence of an overpowering foreign enemy 
and a large influential tory class of their own citi- 
zens, in their midst in full sympathy with the enemy 
and totally opposed to the independent national 
action already taken, it is not strange that the first 
attempt to institute the executive details of govern- 
ment should prove a failure. 

"10. And further, if I read your programme cor- 
rectly, your object is to enlighten the people on the 
crookedness of the administration after peace was 
established with England. That a convention was 
soon called at Philadelphia, ostensibly to amend the 
first attempt at framing a constitution. At which 
time the soldiery were returned to society, and bus- 
ily engaged with the people in the arts of peace, in 
restoring the waste of an eight years' war, the aris- 
tocratic and tory class were left to manage the 
details of government to suit their own tory procliv- 
ities ; and that they stealthily conceived the expert 
scheme of reversing the patriot ardor as to nullify 
all the essential points for which the rebellion was 
inaugurated, except the mere fact of independence, 
and thereby secure all of those royal prerogatives 
inherited from the British Crown. This tory class 
found it convenient at this time to sufficiently pack 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 61 

tne convention with their own order, to carry its 
deliberations. 

"11. That to this end, when met, their first act 
was to form themselves into a secret conclave, 
knowing that if their attempts to change the na- 
tional base from a republic to a mere constitu- 
tional government should get to the ears of the 
busy patriots, their scheme would not carry. Hence, 
the fifth rule in the order of business was, ' That 
nothing said or done in this' convention should be 
communicated outside.' This done, the tory ele- 
ment prevailing, the attempt at revision was no 
longer thought of ; and, ignoring all previous action 
of a national character, they went to work as though 
the United States had no previous existence, and 
they had met to give it birth and executive being. 

" 12. That after four months of secret delibera- 
tion, our present Constitution was formed — except 
the amendments — and brought forward for the pop- 
ular patronage. The result has proved that this 
tory convention understood their purpose, and were 
adroit manipulators in changing the order of na- 
tionality and government, that not a vestige of the 
original republic now remains." 



62 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION ANI> THE 
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 

" With treacherous art and traitor hand 
Ambitious tyrants rule the land." 

All things usef ui are liable to abuse ; the evils 
of abuse are commensurate with the benefits of 
their use. The benefits secured by good govern- 
ment are only measured by the evils of bad gov- 
ernment. How much of the one we may enjoy, 
or of the other we may suffer, will depend on the 
degree of wisdom the people bring to bear in 
their political affairs. The experience of a hun- 
dred years ought to lead to certain success. In 
former ages rulers sought power by force of arms 
and intrigues of courts ; but the arts of modern 
diplomacy, "bossism," lobbyism, and judicial 
legerdemain have superseded the old methods 
with an improvement that does credit to the new 
school of politicians. 

Our patriot fathers gave us the Declaration 
of Independence, and in it set forth the principles 
of a true republic. The Articles of Confedera- 
tion gave us, for a brief period and in an imper- 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 63 

feet manner, a republican form of government. 
They gave us the name, United States of 
America, under the form of a compact govern- 
ment. 

Each State retained its sovereignty. All 
bodies, individual and political, must exercise sov- 
ereignty within their own spheres, for upon it 
unity depends. Local jurisdictions are sovereign 
in their local affairs. So are county and state. 
The Articles of Confederation did not confer 
national sovereignty in the exercise of those func- 
tions most essential to national unity and inde- 
pendence. The Confederation was a league of 
friendship and for common defense, without 
recognizing the necessity for a sovereign power 
to be exercised in their common interests and for 
their common good. A few years' experience 
showed the defects ; the results of an attempt to 
remedy them have already been shown. 

These Articles entitled the citizens of any 
State " to all the privileges and immunities of 
free citizens in the several States," and the privi- 
leges of trade and commerce, " subject to the 
same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the 
inhabitants thereof respectively," and " the right 
of requisition in case of fugitives." 

The delegates " in Congress assembled" were 
sent annually by the several States, not less than 



G4 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

two nor more than seven, " with a power reserved 
to each State to recall its delegates or any of 
them at any time within the year, and send 
others in their stead for the remainder of the 
year." 

No person was capable of being a delegate for 
more than three years in any term of six years. 

Each State was to maintain its own delegates 
in every meeting of the States. 

Freedom of speech and debate was guaranteed 
while in the discharge of their official duties, and 
adequate protection to their persons. 

These provisions are in accordance with the 
true principles of republican government. Repre- 
sentation in the national legislative body is prop- 
erly limited and regulated. The reservation of 
power to recall public servants and send others 
in their stead is most salutary and important. 

It is an essential provision, based on the right 
of the employer to hold his employee responsible. 
Another provision is made by which the dele- 
gates are maintained by their respective States. 
The compensation of officers should be deter- 
mined by the people, and specified in the Con- 
stitution of their government — an oversight, not 
one of the least of the defects of the federal 
organic law. 

Power is delegated to be exercised for the 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 65 

people's benefit, and should at all times be under 
their supervision and control, and returned at 
stated periods to the people, by the expiration of 
the term of office. 

All the forces in nature move in cycles. The 
seasons come and go ; the mists from the ocean's 
bosom are lifted by atmospheric pressure, and 
wafted by the winds to the mountains summits. 
They return in rivulets and streams to the source 
from whence they came, fertilizing the soil and 
beautifying the face of nature. 

So of moral, social, and political forces in their 
rounds, peaceful, quiet, free. In a well-regu- 
lated government, with the expiration of the term 
of office the power delegated flows back to the 
people; but when no provision is made for such 
return, and power is suffered to be vested, 
retained, and exercised for the benefit of a privi- 
leged class, its return is sure, nevertheless. It is 
only delayed, yet when it comes, like the escape 
of pent-up waters, it brings violence and destruc- 
tion in its course. 

Revolution is the natural order of things, both 
in the domain of the material and moral world, 
and the law is alike in both. The normal con- 
dition is freedom. All obstructions and inter- 
ruptions produce violence alike in both. Com- 
mon sense and experience would dictate measures 



66 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

for the peaceful return of power delegated to the 
people's representatives ; for it will come, peace- 
fully if the people are wise; otherwise, inspired 
by the most malignant passions, it will come by 
the torch and the bayonet. 

Provisions were made in the Articles of Con- 
federation for mutual defense, and forbidding 
alliances of the States in their sovereignty with 
foreign powers ; for organizing land forces by 
the States, reserving to them the right to appoint 
all officers below the rank of colonel. All 
charges of war and other expenses for common 
defense were to be defrayed out of the common 
treasury, " which shall be supplied by the sev- 
eral States in the proportion of all land within 
each State granted to or surveyed for any per- 
son, and such land and the buildings and improve- 
ments thereon shall be estimated according to 
such mode as the United States in Congress 
assembled shall from time to time direct and 
appoint." The taxes for paying that propor- 
tion was to be laid and levied by the author- 
ity and direction of the legislatures of the sev- 
eral States within the time agreed upon by the 
United States in Congress assembled. 

Provisions for regulating all international mat- 
ters, granting letters of marque and reprisal in 
times of peace, appointing courts for receiving 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 67 

and determining final appeals in all cases of cap- 
tures ; and also the last resort on appeal in all 
disputes and differences between States in regard 
to boundaries, " or any other cause whatever," 
prescribing the method, which was by arbitra- 
tion. 

" The United States in Congress assembled 
shall also have the sole and exclusive right and 
power of regulating the alloy and value of coin 
struck by their own authority or that of the 
respective States," and " to emit bills of credit." 
Subsequent experience has shown that had Con- 
gress issued its notes with the promise to receive 
them in payment of all government dues, instead 
of a promise to pay in silver coin for public ser- 
vice, they would have remained at par with such 
coin as long; as the government existed. In 1811 
such notes were issued which maintained their 
value with gold and silver, based on their legal 
tender for public dues only, notwithstanding all 
the efforts of the bankers and money-dealers to 
drive them out of circulation. And all subse- 
quent issues of that character have maintained a 
par value, with one slight exception. 

Had such provision been made no financial 
difficulties would have arisen. The pressure that 
moved to the call of a convention for a revision 
of the Articles of Confederation arose from this 



68 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

deficiency, and no doubt would have been reme- 
died, had the Republican party been successful in 
securing a majority of delegates of their party to 
that convention. Indeed, Edmund Randolph, a 
strong and uncompromising Republican, moved 
for national sovereignty by which such measures 
could be carried out; but, as has been seen his 
plans were defeated. 

The Articles of Confederation provided for the 
appointment by Congress of '< one of their num- 
ber to preside, provided that no person be al- 
lowed to serve in the office of President more 
than one year in any term of three years," and 
to adjourn from place to place. Congress, un- 
der the Articles, was only a deliberative body, 
charged with certain specified functions, dele- 
gated by the States for their safety and welfare. 
Every State was pledged " to abide by the de- 
terminations of the United States in Congress 
assembled, which by this Confederation are sub- 
mitted to them. And the Articles of Confeder- 
ation " shall be inviolably observed by every 
State, and the Union shall be perpetual. 

" And we do further solemnly plight and en- 
gage the faith of our respective constituents, that 
they shall abide by the determinations in Congress 
assembled on all questions which by the said 
Confederation are submitted to them, and that 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 69 

the Articles thereof shall be inviolably observed 
by the States we respectively represent, and that 
the Union shall be perpetual." 

Thus, the first effort for the realization of the 
aspirations and long-cherished hopes of the op- 
pressed of every land was made on American 
soil. 

This immortal document was signed by forty- 
eiodit members of the old Continental Congress, 
on the 9th day of July, 1778, without a dissent- 
ing voice; among whom were the most active, 
daring, and uncompromising of the patriot he- 
roes of the Revolution : while only thirty-nine of 
the fifty-five signed the Federal Constitution, and 
sixteen opposed it. Only three of the signers of 
the Declaration signed the Constitution — one of 
whom, Benjamin Franklin, did so under protest ; 
while sixteen of them signed the Articles of 
Confederation. 

Had the Articles of Confederation been so 
amended as to have consolidated their power by 
conferring sovereignty upon the United States, 
with provisions for carrying out republican prin- 
ciples, no one could tell what the results would 
have been. No United States bank would have 
been established on the English system of specie 
basis, which, once getting a foothold, has enabled 
the bankers to control the finances of the coun- 
try 



70 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

No land tenures by which the national domain 
is being rapidly absorbed for speculation and mo- 
nopoly, thus reducing the people to a condition 
of tenantry ; no legislative system by which an 
aristocratic Senate thwarts the people's will, and 
secures class legislation for the favored few; no 
scheming devices by which law has become the 
tyrant instead of the protector. 

No executive system vesting in its chief offi- 
cer a power greater than that of the English 
monarch ; with an army of supporters a hundred 
thousand strong — a power wholly beyond the 
control of the people, and utterly indifferent to 
their welfare. 

No judiciary system borrowed from Great 
Britain, with its hot-bed of corruption ; its intri- 
cate, costly, dilatory, and uncertain administra- 
tion of law, to say nothing of justice, with its 
vast army of trained and skilled professionals. 
Whatever judiciary system would have been 
adopted, it certainly would not have been one 
originating in the feudal ages to serve the pur- 
poses of monarchy, but no doubt would have 
been one subject to modification and control by 
the people. 

No monopolies with their blighting effects on 
industry ; creating poverty, degradation, and 
crime ; despotism, avaricious, unscrupulous, am- 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 71 

bitious, and relentless, by which capital is fostered 
and protected and labor debased and despoiled. 

These were never contemplated, nor even 
dreamed of, as the outcome of that memorable 
struggle for independence and freedom ; but were 
the very results they strove so hard to prevent. 
That struggle must be renewed. Happily, we 
have the ballot yet, and this must be the instru- 
mentality by which our independence and liberty 
are to be gained. 

In contrast with the form and spirit of the 
Articles of Confederation, a review of the Fed- 
eral Constitution is presented. The burden of 
effort by u eminent constitutional lawyers," as 
Judge Story, Daniel Webster, and others, has 
been to make it conform to " common law " ; but 
so many-sided, complicated, and profoundly intri- 
cate are the subtleties that the greatest genius of 
any age or country is unable to cope with them, 
and we have questions of " constitutional law " 
that will remain forever unsettled. 

A constitution that requires the talent of a 
Webster to interpret is not suitable for the peo- 
ple, for a thorough comprehension of the funda- 
mental principles that enter into the structure of 
a popular government is essential to such gov- 
ernment, and were no other objection open to it, 
that alone would condemn it. But aside from 



72 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

this, there are many other serious and fatal ones. 
The most important are here enumerated. 

It vests powers in the various governmental 
departments beyond the reach and control of the 
people, thus changing the form of government 
to a constitutional aristocracy. Ambitious and 
designing men seek positions at the heads of 
these departments, and thus exercise the func- 
tions of government in their own interest and for 
their sole benefit. 

It complicates the legislative system by creat- 
ing a senatorial branch, and rendering the elec- 
tion of Senators impossible by a popular vote. 
There can be no advantage in two distinct 
branches of one body. 

" The objections against two Houses are, first, 
that there is an inconsistency in any part of a 
whole legislature coming to a final determination 
by a vote on any matter whilst that matter with re- 
spect to that whole is yet only in train of delibera- 
tion, and consequently open to new illustrations. 
Second, that by taking a vote on each as a separate 
body, it always admits of the possibility, and is often 
the case in practice, that the minority governs the 
majority, and that in some instances to a great de- 
gree of inconsistency. Third, two Houses arbitrarily 
checking or controlling each other is inconsistent, 
because it cannot be proved on the principles of just 
representation that either should be wiser or better 
than the other. They may check in the wrong as 
well as in the right, and therefore to give them the 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 73 

power where we cannot give the wisdom to use it, 
nor be assured of its being rightly used, renders the 
hazard at least equal to the protection." — Paine 's 
Rights of Man. 

An instance illustrating Mr. Paine's third ob- 
jection is found in senatorial interference early 
in the history of the Civil War. A bill passed 
the House of Representatives to authorize the 
Secretary of the Treasury to issue legal-tender 
notes to defray the expenses of the war. That 
bill was " checked " in the Senate, robbed of its 
authority to issue such notes, and the result is, 
untold millions of debt, resulting in robbery and 
oppression on the one hand, and poverty, debt, 
crime, and misery on the other. 

There are ample means for preventing evils in 
a single legislative body, and provisions for sub- 
mitting any measure to the people for approval 
can be easily made. 

Another serious objection to the senatorial 
branch is that its powers are employed by the 
wealthy and aristocratic classes for their special 
interest and benefit. 

The following editorial extract from a leading 
Democratic journal, in commenting on the Cali- 
fornia (Democratic) legislative proceedings, says : 

cc Speaking generally, the Assembly did much 
better than the Senate. Its record on vital issues 



74 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

is good. Had all the bills passed by it become laws, 
the rights of the people would have been better pro- 
tected. The Senate has been the theater of manip- 
ulation and evil practices. Useful and essential 
legislation has in several instances been stifled." 

It is no uncommon thing to " stifle " useful 
and essential legislation by senatorial " checks," 
" manipulations," and " evil practices." 

In the executive department excessive powers 
are vested. Beside the military and naval 
authority vested in the President, and the veto 
power by which lie can render nugatory the 
action of Congress to the extent reaching a 
majority of two-thirds lacking one, the appoint- 
ment of the judges of the United States Su- 
preme Court and other Federal courts, and all 
foreign ministers and embassadors, he has the 
power to appoint a body-guard of one hun- 
dred thousand strong, of party supporters, over 
none of whom the people have any control. 

In regard to the third (judicial) department, 
there is no necessity, on the assumption that the 
people are capable of self-government. Laws 
can be so clearly expressed that there is no need 
of supporting a costly institution, with an army of 
hungry cormorants attached, to explain what may 
be made plain to any ordinary mind. 

"If we permit our judgment to act unencum- 
bered by the habit of multiplied terms, we can per- 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 75 

ceiveno more than two divisions of power of which 
civil government is composed; namely, that of leg- 
islating or enacting laws, and that of executing or 
administering them. Everything, therefore, apper- 
taining to civil government, classes itself under 
one or the other of these two divisions. So far as 
regards the execution of the laws, that which is 
called judicial power is strictly and properly the 
executive power of every country. It is that 
power to which any individual has an appeal, and 
which causes the laws to be executed." — Paints 
Rights of Man. 

In this respect, as in all others, our government 
is made to conform to that of England, and the 
inevitable result is a condition of the people in 
all respects similar — so far as government is con- 
cerned — to that of England. 

A like system of land tenures, by which hun- 
dreds of millions of acres are held by a few, while 
millions of people are homeless and struggling 
in hopeless poverty, with all the evils of land 
monopoly rapidly increasing. 

A like monetary system, by which the volume 
of currency is controlled by corporations for their 
own benefit. 

A like system of legislation, by which two dis- 
tinct legislative bodies are created to correspond 
with the House of Lords and House of Commons, 
by which legislation for the people is thwarted 
and schemes for enriching the few at the expense 
of the many made easy. 



76 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

A like executive system, by which the power 
is vested in a citizen that magnifies him to the 
proportions of a monarch. 

A like judiciary system, that brings with it the 
accumulation of hundreds of years of reports of 
decisions which are made to serve as precedents, 
and complicated and intricate methods of plead- 
ing, necessitating a class of skilled experts who 
alone are permitted to be heard in the pursuit of 
justice or in defense of wrongs in behalf of their 
clients. 

All these are in direct violation of the princi- 
ples and affirmations as clearly set forth in the 
Declaration of Independence, and were incorpor- 
ated in a government formed by the memorable 
convention held in Philadelphia in 1787, in the 
name of freedom and popular rights. 

Its logical results are seen to-day in a govern- 
ment in the present order of things, in which land- 
lords and tenants, millionaires and paupers, pal- 
aces and hovels, masters and slaves, are rapidly 
and inevitably increasing, and in which crime, 
under the guise and protection of law, holds sway 
over a people robbed, impoverished, and practi- 
cally disfranchised. 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 77 



CHAPTER VI. 

HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED 
STATES, AND THE EVILS OF PARTY SPIRIT. 

" My ear is pained, 
My soul is sick with every day's report 
Of wrong and outrage with which the land is filled. 
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; 
It does not feel for man ; the natural bond 
Of brotherhood is severed as the flax 
That falls asunder at the touch of fire." 

It is sufficient for our purpose to date the ori- 
gin of those causes that in the events of history 
have culminated in the political parties of the 
United States to the Norman invasion. 

In the eleventh century, William of Normandy- 
crossed the English Channel with an armed force, 
Overpowered the Saxon monarch, and took pos- 
session of his kingdom. He parceled out the 
land to his officers, requiring of them allegiance 
to his crown and military service as compensation 
therefor. These lands were let for a rental which 
secured to the landlords an income, as they were 
worked by the conquered people, most of whom 
went with the land. 

In the course of time the military service 
was exchanged for contributions in money, with 



78 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

which armies were raised and equipped. As 
events progressed, the nobility — as William's of- 
ficers and courtiers were called — began to clamor 
for more rights and privileges, which in the reign 
of King John were conceded and specified in the 
Magna Charta. The party under its authority 
increased in strength and efficiency so as to ef- 
fectually limit the power of the king. 

In the mean time, England became a Great 

7 o o 

maritime power, and when enterprises were 
opened by the discoveries in the western conti- 
nent, they were largely entered into by Great 
Britain, by which extensive additions of terri- 
tory were made to her dominions. Especially 
was this the case along the eastern coast of the 
Atlantic, extending from the Gulf of Mexico 
to Newfoundland. Stimulated by the spirit of 
enterprise, British subjects came over to the col- 
onies and built up societies, calling into requisi- 
tion political institutions which became objects 
of interest to the home government. 

In a country so distant and possessing such 
abundant natural resources, the people became 
more self-reliant, and the love of liberty, which 
first found expression in religious dissensions in 
the mother country, blazed afresh amid the free- 
dom of nature in the New World. The spirit of 
independence was fostered, and grew unconscious- 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 79 

ly, as evidenced by the increasing resistance to 
the tyranny of the home government ; and the 
disposition to assert their natural rights finally 
became so strong that an open revolt was the 
result. Thus originated the Patriot or Repub- 
lican party. In that revolt, the party demanding 
natural rights, supported by sympathy and mate- 
rial aid from France, Holland, and Spain, and 
voluntary exiles from other lands, compelled an 
acknowledgment of independence. 

This was the first real victory for freedom 
based on a recognition of the natural, equal, and 
inalienable rights of man. But brief was its tri- 
umph. The advocates of vested power derived 
from kingly authority were unceasing in their 
vigilance, and when the occasion arose for im- 
proving the form of government adopted for the 
preservation of these rights so gloriously won, a 
plan was consummated that established in the or- 
ganic act of the new government the principles 
of the party that originated with William the 
Conqueror. 

This party was at this time led by Alexander 
Hamilton, whose fundamental doctrine was that 
of a natural and inherent division of the people 
of all civilized countries into distinct classes — 
the rich and the poor, the rulers and the ruled ; 
and so thoroughly was he imbued with this idea 



80 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

that he sought with all his energies to frame a 
government whose powers were as far removed 
from the control of the people as a government 
republican in form could be. 

In 1786, Mr. Madison, at that time an ardent 
adherent to Hamilton's views, proposed in the 
Virginia legislature a convention of deputies to 
meet at Annapolis, to revise the form of govern- 
ment then existing. Hamilton, a deputy from 
New York at that convention, presented a plan 
which was adopted by that convention, for a gen- 
eral convention of all the States to revise the 
Articles of Confederation. At that convention, 
which met in May, 1787, the dominant party, 
known as the Federalist, ignoring the grand and 
fundamental idea of the divinity and equality of 
human rights that was the inspiration of the 
patriot fathers, and for which they sacrificed so 
much blood and treasure to gain, succeeded in 
overthrowing them, and establishing a govern- 
ment based on vested powers, over which the 
people have no control, and whose chief officers 
are not elected directly by the people nor respon- 
sible to them — a government more favorable to 
aristocratic rule than that which the Revolution- 
ary fathers had struggled so hard to free them- 
selves from. 

But scarcely a decade had passed after its 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 81 

adoption, before the party of equal rights were 
once more victorious ; but the Federal Constitu- 
tion had fixed the limits and prescribed the pow- 
ers of the government and determined its char- 
acter. This will continue until the people once 
more demand their natural rights, and a govern- 
ment based on them. 

Thomas Jefferson, who declared that " the 
party who supported the Federal Constitution 
was aristocratic and monarchical," was absent 
on a foreign mission, and the country lost his ser- 
vices at home when they were the most needed. 
All the Republicans exhausted their utmost ener- 
gies to defeat the measure ; and denounced it as 
no better than the government they had sought 
to free themselves from. They demanded the 
recognition and establishment of the principles 
upon which our independence was won. They 
declared that the party that had set aside the 
Articles of Confederation purposely ignored the 
natural rights of man, and established a govern- 
ment with powers so vested that the people could 
not control them, which was a virtual defeat of 
popular government. 

From the commencement of the present cen- 
tury up to 1824, foreign difficulties kept the peo- 
ple so well united that party spirit was not so 
manifest. However, in 1811, Josiah Quincy, a 
4.* 



82 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

rank Federalist, declared that disunion would be 
justifiable under certain circumstances ; and in 
1812, the Hartford Convention was called — a 
Federalist movement— to take into consideration 
the necessity of the New England States seced- 
ing: on account of the embargo laid on their 
commerce by the government. With these ex- 
ceptions, no important events occurred to indicate 
their designs. 

Upon the accession of Mr. Monroe to the 
Presidency, in 1817, party lines seemed almost 
imperceptible. In reply to an address of the cit- 
izens of Maine, he said : " The farther I advance 
in my progress in the country, the more I per- 
ceive that we are all Americans ; that we com- 
pose but one family Nothing could give 

me greater satisfaction than to behold a per- 
fect union among ourselves — a union which is 
necessary to restore to social intercourse its 
former charms, and to render our happiness as a 
nation unmixed and complete." He believed the 
people were unanimous in their opinions, and 
" that no second party was necessary to the well- 
being of the government." As evidence of the 
unanimity of party feeling, Mr. Monroe was re- 
elected in 1820, by a vote" of 231 out of 232— 
the whole number of electoral votes. 

How differently Presidents talk in these days ! 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 83 

Party spirit rules ; officials live and thrive on it, 
and do all in their power to foster and keep it up. 
During the Presidential campaign of 1824, 
party spirit, which had been quiet — with the ex- 
ceptions above noticed — for nearly a quarter of 
a century, began to revive, and by the next Pres- 
idential election rose to a considerable height. 
Various causes contributed to this result ; no 
doubt among them were the cessation of hostili- 
ties, the increase of local interests as new States 
were added to the Union, and the conflict of in- 
terests arising from increasing industries. But 
most of all was the prospect held out by Andrew 
Jackson, who had become a prominent candidate 
for President, of a removal of office-holders — at 
least, of such as were not strongly on their side — 
and the distribution of their places as spoils to 
the victors ; that is, rewards for electioneering 
purposes, which were fully carried out upon his 
accession to the Presidency in 1828. Since then 
the practice thus inaugurated has tended to 
intensify party spirit by appeals to personal am- 
bition and selfish aims, rather than honest dif- 
ferences in regard to political principles and 
policies of government, which characterized the 
Federal and Republican parties previous to that 
time. This gave a different turn to the politics 
of the country, being thus transferred from the 



84 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

domain of politic science to that of personal 
strife for party supremacy and the spoils of 
office. 

The vast powers conferred by the Constitution 
upon the President has made that office the 
object of the most zealous and determined pur- 
suit, and the great parties have become mere fac- 
tions, organized for the sole purpose of profit, 
power, and prestige ; and have lost sight of the 
people's interests altogether. In view of these 
facts, how foolish and short-sighted it is to be 
carried away by party spirit, to train under the 
whip of some leader for the sole purpose of ele- 
vating him to power ! 

But we must not lose sight of the old Federal 
party. During Jackson's administration, under 
a new name, and stimulated by his hostility to 
one of their favorite and most reliable schemes — 
the United States bank — their leaders made a 
grand effort to defend it, and by gaining party 
control fix it upon a lasting basis. It will be 
remembered that the occasion of this struggle 
was the attempt to renew the charter of the 
National Bank, which would expire in 1836. - 

Failing in that, they gave their attention to 
State banks, and by the time of the outbreak of 
the Civil War they had acquired the financial 
ability to cope with and control the nation's treas* 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 85 

ury, which enabled them to dictate the creation 
of corporations for the purpose of monopolizing 
the currency, by which commerce, trade, and all 
the industries of the country are controlled, and 
thus bring the wealth-producer and wage-earner 
to a condition of servile dependence. 

Since the Civil War, this element has absorbed 
the most wealthy of both the old parties, and 
creating itself into an oligarchy, controls the 
action of both the dominant parties in all the 
departments of the government. In 1868 the 
Democratic party had declared a policy not al- 
together favorable to their interests — that is, 
payment of national bonds according to the pro- 
visions by which they were purchased, and they 
set themselves to work and defeated it. In 1872 
Grant's re-election was necessary to carry out the 
plans they had so successfully inaugurated dur- 
ing his first administration, and Mr. Greeley was 
sacrificed to secure it. In 1876 the Democratic 
nominee for President received 157,037 more 
votes than his competitor, who, however, was in- 
stalled into office because he was the choice of the 
oligarchy ; and during that administration, though 
the Democrats had a majority on joint ballot of 
13, no measures were introduced and matured 
from either party looking to the interests of the 
people. 



86 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

In a word, the old Federal party, that gave us 
the Constitution, has gained a permanent control, 
attracting to its ranks many from modern democ- 
racy ; it has retired from the field of party strife, 
and is enabled to hold sway by manipulating its 
own rank and file, as well as the other party, 
through its tools, the politicians, who are satisfied 
to take their chances in the scramble for office, 
depending for success upon their appeals to party 
spirit; and by prejudices and animosities, stimu- 
lated by party zeal aroused by subsidized jour- 
nals, stump oratory, bold and artful misrepresen- 
tation and reckless promises, they manage to keep 
the people in subjection to their interests. 

In our present condition there is no hope of 
relief from the oppression and robbery carried 
on under the provisions and sanctions of the 
Federal Constitution. By it powers are vested 
in and exercised by giant corporations, who are 
able to clothe all their crimes in the habiliments 
of law, and succeed in impressing upon the peo- 
ple the sanctity and inviolability of all govern- 
ment proceedings. By the power it vests in the 
chief executive, it makes this office so much the 
object of pursuit that ambitious and unprincipled 
men resort to all means in their power to gain it. 

Party spirit is becoming stronger under the 
stimulus of increasing patronage and emolu- 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 87 

merits and more thorough discipline ; and elec- 
tions are merely ratifications of conventions 
controlled in the interest of great corporations, 
the culmination of the old Federal party. 

Such officers so elected recognize no responsi- 
bility to the people, and over whom the people 
have no control whatever. In private business 
the employer claims and exercises control over 
his employee ; in public business the reverse is 
the case. This reversal is despotism, and must 
end in revolution in some way. 

Thus it will be seen that the prevailing party 
of to-day, which sways political factions for 
selfish and ambitious ends, is the same party that 
prevailed in the convention that framed the Fed- 
eral Constitution, and dating its origin to the act 
of King John at Runymede, in 1215. Emanating 
from royalty and granted to nobility, it still re- 
tains its aristocratic character, and has estab- 
lished that condition in society which Hamilton 
ascribed to natural causes. The people are di- 
vided into two classes — " the few, the rich, the 
well-born," and " the many, the poor, the laboring 
masses " — by the power of unjust laws. 

The real evils of party spirit consist in the bias 
it creates, the animosities and prejudices it en- 
genders, and the blind zeal and reliance upon 
party leaders it inspires and promotes, thus de- 



88 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

feating the very purposes intended in establish- 
ing popular government. 

Passionate attachment to party disqualifies the 
mind for deliberation and judgment, without 
which free government cannot exist. It leads to 
opposition of interests and strife, compelling the 
people to take up the interests of individuals in- 
stead of interests of public concern. This will 
inevitably be the case when the aims and objects 
of party are the spoils of office. Party spirit 
now becomes the instrument of designing men 
as we have so often seen manifested in political 
" bossism " within the last few years. 

Washington's Farewell Address is as applicable 
to the people of to-day as it was in 1796 ; and his 
views in regard to the evils of party spirit apply 
more forcibly now than ever before in the history 
of our government. He says : 

" I have already intimated the danger of parties 
in the State, with particular reference to the found- 
ing of them on geographical discriminations. Let 
me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn 
you in the most solemn manner against the baneful 
effects of the spirit of party generally. 

" This spirit is unfortunately inseparable from 
our nature, having its root in the strongest passions 
of the human mind. It exists under different 
shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, con- 
trolled, or repressed ; but in those of the popular 
form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly 
their worst enemy. 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 89 

"The alternate domination of one faction over 
another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural 
to party dissensions, which in different ages and 
countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormi- 
ties, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads 
me at once to a more formal and permanent despo- 
tism. The disorders and miseries which result 
gradually incline the minds of men to seek security 
and repose in the absolute power of an individual, 
and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing fac- 
tion, more able or more fortunate than his competi- 
tors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his 
own elevation on the ruins of public liberty. 

" Without looking forward to an extremity of 
this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be en- 
tirely out of sight), the common and continual mis- 
chiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make 
it the interest and duty of a wise people to discour- 
age and restrain it. It serves always to distract 
the public councils and enfeeble the public admin- 
istration. It agitates the community with ill- 
founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the 
animosity of one part against the other, forments 
occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the 
door to foreign influence and corruption, which 
find a facilitated access to the government itself 
through the channels of party passion. Thus, the 
policy and will of our country are subject to the 
policy and wdll of another. 

" There is an opinion that parties in free coun- 
tries are useful checks upon the administration of 
the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit 
of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably 
true, and in governments of a monarchical cast, 
patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with 
favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of a 



90 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

popular character, in governments purely elective, 
it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their 
natural tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. 
And there being constant danger of excess, the 
effort ought to be by force of public opinion to mit- 
igate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it 
demands a universal vigilance to prevent its burst- 
ing into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should 
consume." 

To the reflecting mind a retrospect of the his- 
tory of party spirit will disclose the sagacity, 
wisdom, and forethought expressed in the sol- 
emn warning of this illustrious man. They are 
seen in the recent elections. Without an issue 
of the least importance to the interests of the 
people, the two political parties, by appeals to 
party spirit, and arousing public passion, they 
drew to their ranks millions of adherents, the 
sole purpose of which was the contest for suprem- 
acy of the one party or the other. In this way, 
questions which should command the attention 
of the people, and the understanding of which is 
essential to their interest, are thus diverted from 
consideration and discussion. All questions of 
great importance are thus neglected, and the 
people's minds filled with prejudice and mutual 
hatred, they are not qualified to act intelligently. 
Popular government is in this way defeated, and 
party spirit is the chief instrumentality by which 
the defeat is accomplished. 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 91 

CHAPTER VII. 

REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 

" For sparing justice feeds iniquity." 

M There's a fish hangs in the net like a poor man's rights in 
the law." 

As civilization advances, the ruder and less 
developed institutions gradually yield to more 
advanced and mature. 

Each onward step is attended with difficulty 
in proportion as the people are rude and unde- 
veloped. The conservative element here asserts 
its prerogative, and the conflict is between error, 
supported by prejudice, bigotry, and the aggran- 
dizement of those whose interests it supports on 
the one hand, and the light of advancing thought 
expressed in new ideas, sought to be applied to 
the welfare of society, on the other. 

So firmly do laws and institutions once estab- 
lished remain fixed, and so easily are prejudices 
excited for them, that it is no difficult thing for 
interested parties to retain the old and prevent 
the new. 

Thus a judiciary system, established hundreds 
of years ago, in the feudal ages, in a monarchi- 



92 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

cal government, attended with imposing ceremo- 
nies and fixed forms, is preserved in its material 
characteristics and transmitted to us. 

This system does not aim at justice, it only 
professes to administer law : and whatever might 
have been the intention of formulating justice in 
the terms of law, the distinction is now so great 
as not to be included in the same category. 
Precedents, arising from decisions, the conditions 
which gave rise to them having ceased lono* years 
ago, and in localities thousands of miles away, 
form the basis of judicial decisions to-day. 

" The English Courts all decide according to pre- 
cedent, or if no former decision can be found, then 
by analogy, to what has been decided in similar 
cases, or upon some general principle which has 
been recognized ; and in cases entirely new, have 
sometimes sought aid from the Roman Law." — 
American Cyclopedia, loo. cit. 

That is to say, when a case arises that comes 
under no previous decision, they go bach to 
heathen institutions for light, ignoring the judg- 
ment of modern thinkers, and all the benefits of 
modern science and philosophy. Common sense 
and the promptings of natural justice are alike 
ignored, and we have a fossilized system as arbi- 
trary and unyielding as the bed of Procrustes. 

" The Courts of the United States have a general 
correspondence with the English j udiciary system." 
—Ibid. 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 93 

The modifications pertain to local jurisdiction, 
rather than changes in the essential character of 
the courts. 

An attempt was made in France in 1790 to 
abrogate all power of deciding from analogy, or 
even a resort to general principles of jurispru- 
dence ; and all cases not provided for by express 
laws were to be referred to the National Assem- 
bly, for the purpose of having such law enacted 
as would be applicable to the particular case. 

" This crude experiment," says the historian, 
" was so unsatisfactory, that in the Code Napo- 
leon it was thought necessary, not only to restore 
to the courts the power c/f deciding upon general 
principles and analogy, but it was made penal to 
do otherwise." 

" General principles and analogy ! " TTho 
understands general principles and analogy ? 
Blackstone wrote four portly volumes to explain 
the Common Law that every one is supposed to 
understand. It requires years of study and dis- 
cipline to be able to expound the law, and yet 
every one above an idiot or lunatic is responsible 
to it. The Emperor Xero is said to have dis- 
played his tyranny by causing the laws to be 
placed beyond the people's knowledge, and then 
punishing them for disobeying them. 

The people in this government are virtually 



94 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

in the same condition ; for the laws are access i 
ble to very few ; and if one wishes a legal opin* 
ion, it costs him a good round fee — an opinion 
that generally leads to litigation, and is stoutly 
denied by the opposing counsel, who is of equal 
ability. 

It is not strange that men eminent in the legal 
profession should disagree in the most vital 
points of law ; for when we come to consider that 
law is a vast accumulation of rules, regulations, 
orders, decisions, opinions, speculations, theories, 
legislative enactments, and customs, running 
back to " the time the memory of man knoweth 
not to the contrary " ; \^lien we further consider 
the machinery for its administration is so compli- 
cated, cumbersome, intricate, dilatory, and uncer- 
tain — we cease to wonder at the diversity of 
opinion ; for it requires more than human ability 
to comprehend the whole. But the great won- 
der is, that since simple justice is all the people 
demand, and that its administration is so simple, 
easy, certain, direct, and less costly, that it does 
not take the place of the present burdensome 
and oppressive system. 

There is no reason why the people should tol- 
erate and suffer from such a judiciary system. If 
the laws were written in plain, clear, and explicit 
language, so that all could read and understand 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 95 

them, and easy, simple, and direct methods of ad- 
ministration devised, the objects and purposes of 
law would be accomplished at very little cost and 
infinite relief to the people. 

The history of judicial proceedings is one of 
injustice, cruelty, and tyranny. It is a history 
of fraud, crime, and oppression perpetrated in a 
legal way. Its great feature is the conviction of 
poor and obscure offenders, and the infliction of 
heavy penalties ; while wealthy criminals and 
those occupying prominent positions in society 
are allowed almost perfect immunity: the former 
to " vindicate the law " and spread terror among 
the lower classes ; the latter serves for an im- 
mense revenue to the profession, and is, a consid- 
eration for compounding crime in high places. . 

In the attempted compromise between the rob- 
ber chiefs of the Mussel Slough land-steal and 
the settlers thereon, Mr. Huntington said in sub- 
stance : u We have the government to back us 
up; the settlers can do nothing." 

Instances of outright forgeries, recognized by 
judicial enactments, and nailed by precedents, are 
numerous ; as instance the Broderick Will Case, 
the outlines of which are here presented: 

" David C. Broderick, a United States Senator 
from California, fell in a duel with David S. Terry, 
in this city and county, and died a few days there- 



96 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

after, September 16, 1859. He left an estate in 
San Francisco of the value of about three hundred 
thousand dollars. It was generally believed that 
he left no kindred ; in fact, he was reported to have 
so declared a long time before his death. During 
the few days which passed between his injury and 
his decease, he said nothing in regard to having any 
kin, or having made any will. After his death, a 
thorough search among his papers and effects was 
made, but no will was discovered, and the public 
administrator took charge of the estate. 

IC On the 20th of the following February John 
A. McGlynn and Andrew J. Butler presented to our 
Probate Court and had filed for probate a docu- 
ment which purported to be the last will and testa- 
ment of David C. Broderick, in which they were 
named as executors without bonds, in connection 
with George Wilkes of New York City. It dis- 
posed of the entire estate in two brief paragraphs — 
to John A. McGlynn was given $10,000, to George 
Wilkes the residue. 

"On the day appointed for hearing the application 
of McGlynn and Butler for letters testamentary, 
various persons appeared, claiming to be heirs, and 
contested the proposed paper on the ground that 
it was forged. The trial was set for June 18, 1860, 
when it was commenced, and it continued until 
October 8th following. Many witnesses were ex- 
amined and depositions were read of persons resid- 
ing in New York. On the date last given, the 
Probate Court (Judge Blake) held the alleged will 
to be genuine, admitted it to probate, and aj)pointed 
McGlynn and Butler executors without bonds. 
Appeals were taken by the claimants, or those de- 
claring themselves to be heirs, which were dis- 
missed for want of prosecution. (It would not 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 97 

puzzle the average lawyer to guess how this came 
about.) 

"The executors, in the course of administration, 
obtained an order of court authorizing them to sell, 
either at private or public sale, the whole or any 
portion of the estate. The sale was advertised for 
November 30, 1861. On November 29, 1861, the 
Attorney-General, Thomas H. Williams, on behalf 
of the State, and on the relation of Frank M. Pixley, 
Esq., Attorney-General elect, but not yet in office, 
filed in the Fourth District Court an information 
alleging that Broderick had died intestate and 
without heirs, and that his estate had escheated to 
the State of California. On the same day he com- 
menced in the same court a suit in equity to ob- 
tain an injunction against the sale of the estate by 
McGlynn and Butler. A temporary restraining or- 
der was issued pending the information. 

" On the hearing it was claimed by the plaintiff 
that the forgery was accomplished after this man- 
ner : Butler, who was in this State when Broderick 
died, and afterwards, conceived the job; and go- 
ing to New York, confederated with Moses E. Flan- 
agan, James R. Maloney, George Wilkes, John J. 
Hoff, and Alfred A. Phillips. Flanagan, who had 
been in the habit of using, by consent, Broderick's 
senatorial frank, wrote simulated signatures on sev- 
eral sheets of paper. Phillips wrote the will above 
* one of those signatures, and he and Hoff signed 
their names as witnesses. It was not disclosed 
where the alleged will was discovered. It pur- 
ported to have been made in the city of New York, 
on January 2 (Sunday), 1859. 

"McGlynn, who was not charged with the forgery, 
was the only defendant who appeared. He denied 
on information and belief all the allegations of the 



98 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

complaint. His defense was that the will was gen- 
nine, and that the decree of the Probate Court 
admitting the document to probate was final and 
conclusive, and could not be questioned by any 
other court — under the- statute which provided 
that after the lapse of one year from the probate 
of a will the probate shall be conclusive. 

tl Judge Hager held^hat this statute did not pre- 
clude courts of equity from setting aside wills the 
probate of which had been procured by fraud. He 
said : ' It seems like an anomaly in law that by any 
course of reasoning, based on principle and legal 
authority, we should attempt to establish the valid- 
ity of a forged will, which is of itself. a nullity, or 
of its probate procured by fraud and perjury; and 
if successfully. done, I fear it would be a reflection 
upon our institutions and a stain upon our juris- 
prudence It is urged that equity will not 

interfere, even if it be established that the will is 
a forgery, and its probate procured by fraud and 
perjury. If this be sound in principle and sup- 
ported by authority, we deduce a controlling prin- 
ciple of law to the following effect: That if a person 
successfully consummates the forgery of a will, and 
by fraud and perjury gets it admitted to probate, 
and for one year thereafter conceals the evidence 

of his crime, he may acquire an estate Such 

a principle would seem to be in violation of natural 

justice, absolute rights, and public policy I 

am not able to understand why a forged will should 
be placed upon any footing different from a f orged 
deed.' 

" Having declared that the only satisfactory evi- 
dence in the case was that evinced by the will itself, 
Judge Hager proceeded : 

" ' An inspection of the will discloses to the 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 99 

senses some peculiar phenomena, and many re- 
markable visible signs that are suggestive and cir- 
cumstantially strong against the probable truth of 
some of the defendants' evidence. It is manifest 
to the eye that, in the signature " D. C. Broderick," 
and in the words "John J. Hoff, 131 and 133 Wash- 
ington Street, Hoboken, N. J.," the ink of the one 
is of a darker tint than that of the other, and that 
both are much darker-hued than the writing com- 
posing the body of the document and the certificate 
of attestation. In the last-mentioned instance it 
is so demonstrable, upon mere inspection, that I 
can hardly suppose the entire document and signa- 
tures were written on the same occasion, at the 
same table, and with the same ink, as we are led to 
infer was the case from the testimonv of Phillips 
and Hoff. 

ac The will consists of one sheet of letter paper ; 
the signature is on the third line of the second page, 
and is succeeded by the certificate of the subscrib- 
ing witnesses. 

" 'The body of the will contains twenty-one lines 
of manuscript. Of these, eighteen are entire lines, 
without interlineation. As the lines approximate 
the signature the letters become gradually and very 
percej3tibly smaller, and the words were more con- 
densed and crowded, and in the last line a few of 
the words are carried beyond the marginal line, 
which is the only instance where it occurs, either 

in the body of the will or the certificate 

These phenomena, so remarkable and extraordi- 
nary, apparent upon the face of the will, and estab- 
lished in some respects with the certainty of a 
mathematical demonstration, are unexplained, and, 
in view of the evidence, cannot upon any reason- 
able hypothesis be attributed to chance or accident. 



100 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

The ordinary manuscript of a scrivener would 
scarcely ever exhibit such marked peculiarities. If, 
however, as some of the evidence tends to indicate, 
the name tc D. C. Broderick " was first written, and 
that alleged signature and the initial line on the 
first page formed a Proscrustean bed, in which the 
body of this alleged will was placed and made to 
conform to it, we have a solution.' 

"The judge ordered the injunction issued as 
prayed for. McGlynn appealed, and a memorable 
argument followed before the Supreme Court. 
Messrs. Hoge and Wilson represented the appellant, 
and succeeded in upholding the will. Judge Ha- 
ger's injunction was dissolved. James B. Haggin 
represented the self-declared heirs-at-law, and Greg- 
ory Yale fought like a Titan for the lost cause. The 
following vigorous extract from his brief is here 
presented : 

" c The great effort is now, and always has been 
since the accidental probate of this felonious paper, 
to take shelter behind a formal decree legalizing 
the felonious act. Will or no will when pro- 
pounded for probate, it is claimed that it became 
an immaculate testament when solemnized by cer- 
tain forms. Broderick may not have made a will, 
but Butler, with his co-conspirators, has secured 
the Probate Judge's name, if not D. C. Broderick's, 
to the paper, and no human power can detach it. 
This is the doctrine that this court is called upon 
to sanction. Years and generations hence, the 
term of 1862 is to be signalized — as the forgers and 
speculators would decree it — as an epoch in the 
legal history of this great State, when its highest 
tribunal pronounced in favor of an unmitigated 
fraud, only because an inferior tribunal had sanc- 
tioned it, and because the law afforded no escape 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 101 

from its own machinations. Such reflections upon 
the law are unwarrantable, unworthy of any civil- 
ized code, and humiliating to listen to.' 

w The Supreme Court refused to interfere with the 
probate of the will, on the ground that the decree 
of the. Probate Court was final and conclusive, the 
statutory period of one year having elapsed since 
its probate, and not subject, except on an appeal to 
a higher court, to be questioned in any other court, 
or he set aside or vacated by a court of equity on 
any ground (20 Cal. 234). 

" The estate was accordingly sold, and distributed 
in pursuance of the terms of the will." 

The following instance shows a case in which 

a precedent overrides the Constitution of the 

United States, as given by Samuel Sinnett of 

Iowa : 

H There is no place where reform is more loudly 
called for than in our courts of law. It is strange 
that in the latter part of the nineteenth century 
the demand for reform in our courts has not been 
treated with that respect to which such a subject 
is entitled. But, instead of keeping up with the 
spirit of the age, and repealing old obsolete laws 
and rulings in our courts, we are piling up a pyra- 
mid of absurd' and complicated contradictory stat- 
utes, that are victimizing all those that seek justice 
in our courts. Fully four-fifths of the people are 
in favor of courts of arbitration (where no lawyers 
should be allowed to plead), where cases might be 
tried on their merits, and justice rendered without 
such fearful costs and the torture of prolonged de- 
lay, and the rude and often insulting of the cross- 
questioning of the counsel, who often treat witnesses 



102 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

as if they were in the habit of perjury. Then our 
■whole s}>tem is wrong. The idea of one man de- 
ciding a case where eleven are in favor of convic- 
tion might have done very well in the days of John, 
but is altogether out of place in the present age. 
TThy not have a two-thirds majority render a ver- 
dict? The Grand Jury is a relic of a past age, 
which, like the Electoral College and the Senate, 
ought to be sent up to the garret with the rest of 
the lumber. But some will ask, " Y\Tiat would be- 
come of our lawyers? " They could not all be sent 
' to Congress and the Legislature. Your system 
would simplify justice, and there would be little 
chance for prolonged litigation. Then w T ere our 
laws honestly executed (bad as some of them are), 
there would not be such cause for complaint ; but 
we find our courts have become mere skinning es- 
tablishments, where the flaying is continued as long 
as there is hide enough left to pay for the operation. 
You can't give even a simple note off-hand any 
more without there is an iron-clad provision to pay 
a reasonable attorney's fee (generally from £50 to 
8100. when *5 would be ample pay for the service), 
and then costs are all secured by provisions of the 
note. But worst of all is the iron-clad mortgage, 
with its coupons, each and all claiming like fees 
and costs. I know of one firm that has loaned out 
five millions of Scotch capital on .mortgages on 
farms (these money-lenders always prefer that class 
of property), the principal and interest-coupons all 
to be repaid in gold at a certain banking-house in 
New York. What a fat thing this will be for the 
lawyers that collect them ! Now, this is always 
loaned on a valuation of one-third, so that there is 
a rich margin to fatten on. And yet those very 
farmers will vote for lawyers to represent them, ex- 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 103 

pecting those men to make laws to protect the peo- 
ple from such a system of things. What fools the 
lawyers are to neglect their own interests! Now, 
the worst class of men to send to Congress and the 
Legislature to made laws are, without exception, 
lawyers, because they have no interest in common 
with their constituents, and will make the laws as 
mysterious and contradictory as possible. 

u It is generally believed that judges are seated 
on the bench to administer justice agreeable to law 
and in harmony with the Constitution, as it is gen- 
erally conceded that no statute can be of force when 
it conflicts with the Constitution. I will here relate 
a little of my own experience in that respect. We 
had one of those legalized robbery schemes en- 
forced here, termed a five-per-cent tax, to aid in 
building a railroad. A number of the tax-payers 
refused to pay the tax, and sued out an injunction 
against the collector forbidding him selling our 
property. (Just imagine : selling our homes out to 
build a railroad to rob us !) Well, they sent for a 
certain judge from a neighboring county to come 
and try the injunction suit. In rendering his de- 
cision he made use of the following singular state- 
ment : " That there was little doubt but the law icas 
unconstitutional" Private property shall not be 
taken for public purposes without just compensation 
(IT. S. Const.); but there was a decision by which 
he would have to be governed, and he dissolved the 
injunction and ordered our property to be sold. 
The judge that had so just a respect for the deci- 
sion of a court and so little for the Constitution 
has since been advanced to the Supreme Bench, 
where his decisions will become law for future as- 
piring pettifoggers. I wall here state another case 
to show how justice is carried on in our courts. A 



104 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

certain young man committed forgery for some 
trifling amount. The penalty was only three 
months in the penitentiary. He wanted to plead 
guilty, but certain limbs of the law saw a good 
chance for a hand, and persuaded him to stand a 
trial. Well, he was indicted for the offense, and 
the State attorney drew up sixteen different charg- 
es or counts in the indictment, for which he charged 
sixteen different fees against the county ; and as the 
prisoner had no money to hire counsel, the judge 
appointed one of the bar to defend him, for which 
he was entitled to $10 fee, but he brought in a bill 
of $160, being §10 for each count in the indictment. 
That man is one of the law-makers of Iowa, and the 
prosecuting attorney is before the people for elec- 
tion again, with a good prospect of success." 

And thus innumerable cases have originated 
without the least merit, and carried through a 
long and costly litigation to a successful issue ; 
and innumerable other cases founded on justice 
and with real merit have met with an opposite 
fate. 

The only reason why such a monstrous system 
of oppression is suffered to exist, is that we rever- 
ence antiquity and venerate the institutions of 
the past, and bow to their authority by the sheer 
force of custom and education. As a means for 
the administration of justice, our judiciary system 
is a most signal failure ; as a source of wealth to 
a class of professional vampires, it is a most sig- 
nal success. 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 100 

The moral influence of the courts of law and of 
the legal profession is corrupting and degrading. 
The courts are stern, dignified, and despotic, 
exacting the most servile obedience to their man- 
dates, with severe and summary punishment for 
" contempt," as non-obedience to their dictates is 
termed ; all of which is to enforce slavish obedi- 
ence and protect the " majesty of the law " ! As 
fitting instruments of these despotic institutions 
are the "legal profession,"' who infest every com- 
munity, and live in wealth and luxury at the peo- 
ple's expense. 

Misrepresentation, cunning, and artifice are 
their implements, and skill in the intricacies of a 
subtle craft their stock in trade. Falsehood sup- 
ported by all the sanctity of an oath administered 
in the most solemn and imposing manner, and sup- 
ported by all the craft that cunning can devise, 
is a frequent factor in the solution of their legal 
problems. 

Clients, whose desire for victory is intensified 
by the zeal and assurances of their advocates and 
the sympathy they excite, imbibe the spirit of 
their champions, and cherish with peculiar sat- 
isfaction the exaggerations, misrepresentations, 
schemes of artifice, and often of falsehoods, 
employed by their attorneys, and 'these they 
carry to their homes and associates, where 
5* 



106 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

they are commented on and admired, and thus 
the poison, originating in well-trained and skill- 
ful brains versed in all the arts of decep- 
tion, is diffused throughout society ; and as 
custom blunts by familiarity, so the finer sense 
of justice, which under proper circumstances 
would demand the right, is lost in the coarser 
sense of self-interest. 

The influence of the legal profession in politi- 
cal affairs is well nigh omnipotent. As a rule, 
its members are the "politicians" and man- 
agers of all the scheme s for corporate villiany, 
always pliant and purchasable. As practice 
in the courts is a species of warfare, and 
as all measures of deceiving the enemy and tak- 
ing advantage of his weak points are justifiable 
in warlike tactics, so must the legal practitioner 
of necessity become familiar with and resort to 
these arts of war. However justifiable they may 
be on the battle-field, at the bar, and in conflict 
with moral forces, their effect is necessarily in- 
imical to integrity and uprightness of character. 
The rule of exception applies here as elsewhere, 
and it is due to the profession to say that some 
legal minds have reflected great credit upon 
human nature. 

The vocation necessitates craft, and the practice 
makes men crafty. 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 107 

The following, from the pen of John Swinton, 
will be appreciated by every admirer of that 
able reformer : 

"In the business of subverting the liberties of 
our beloved country, I do not dread the soldier with 
his rifle . nor the conspirator with his mask, nor the 
fool, fanatic, or the demagogue, nor the king in 
his regalia, nor the cleric with his tongue, nor the 
editor with his quill, nor Satan with his horns, nor 
yet the millionaire with his millions, if they have 
but a fair field. The man to be dreaded in this 
republic is the shystering lawyer; legal machina- 
tion is the thing of menace and danger. It is in 
this country especially that the people need to be 
on the alert against legal quibblers ; here they swarm 
as they do nowhere else on the globe, not only in 
the courts, but in legislatures and their lobbies, and 
every place of power and greatness. 

" How often, in searching amid the ruins of pop- 
ular properties in other countries that once enjoyed 
them, do we come upon the tracks of the false law- 
yer ! For what oppressor has he not found a legal 
subterfuge ? For what deed of guilt has he not 
been ready to erect a legal bulwark? Do we not 
find him with a legal defense of every usurpation 
of every usurper ; with a legal justification for any 
invasion of every birthright of man ; with a legal 
quibble over every great popular franchise ; with a 
legal glaze for every clear word of freedom ; with 
legal pettifoggery against every establishment of 
right ; with a legal weapon for nullifying every vic- 
tory of progress ; with a legal jimmy, as Major 
Haggerty lately said in the Assembly, to pry open 
every man's safe \ with legal mechanism for tearing 
out every stone in the fabric of justice, and for rear- 
ing every pillar in the edifice of wrong? 



108 THE NEW REPUBLIC 

" Not a guilty deed has ever been perpetrated 
by power ; not a base treason has ever been hatched 
against the Commonwealth ; not a device has ever 
been set for the subversion of any popular right — 
but the false lawyer has stood ready to uphold it 
with the armament of false legality. He battered 
the Twelve Tables of Rome, he made of no effect 
the Ten Commandments of Moses, he stifled the 
genius of Magna Charta, and he is now scuttling 
the Constitution of the United States." 

The reform of this monstrous evil, so much 
needed and so essential to a true republic, is 
very simple and easy. The remedy may be 
expressed in three words — Let it alone. 

In all civil cases, provisions are made by law 
to settle all controversies by arbitration. Let the 
people settle their own disputes in their own way, 
and give the lawyers an opportunity to earn an 
honest living. Some modifications may be needed 
so that all cases may be settled in this manner. In 
criminal cases, a similar method may be employed, 
so that courts may in time cease to exist. 

In the disposition of property by inheritance, 
the vast amount of litigation and expense now- 
incurred in the settlement of real estates of de- 
ceased persons could be avoided by conveying 
the title by deed of gift. Especially would this 
give almost infinite relief to wives of deceased 
persons whose estates must be probated at an 
enormous expense, annoyance, and delay. 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 109 

It must be remembered that the power of the 
government is the will of the people, and that 
that will is sovereign ; and further, that the peo- 
ple are interested in nothing but their advance- 
ment and welfare, and that reason and wisdom 
dictate the rule of justice. 

All that is needed is that the people shall 
agree. It would be far better on the score of 
economy, as vastly more is expended in litigating 
claims than is claimed in litigation. This fact 
being realized, many persons refrain from the 
courts and suffer absolute losses in consequence. 
Then why should they be sustained? 

This reform would be rendered easier by other 
reforms. Thus a volume of money sufficient to 
dispense with credits would take away an im- 
mense amount of legal practice ; but as it is, 
the profession will favor a contracted currency 
which by compelling the extensive use of credits 
and legal instrumentalities for the collection of 
debts, lawyers find ample and profitable employ- 
ment. 

Withholding natural rights from women, by 
which a vast amount of business finds its way 
into the courts, is another source of patronage to 
the legal profession. So, really, the people sup- 
port a burden of cost in the administration of 
law instead of justice, that supports and enriches 



110 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

a vast army of lawyers, judges, and attaches to 
the courts that would support the expenditures 
of government — a system in which the most 
money wins and the defenseless are victimized. 

The subject of litigation in the courts of jus- 
tice (?) is fraught with such vast importance to 
the people that any means by which some method 
of litigation can be substituted demands the most 
earnest and careful attention of the people. The 
most determined efforts to supply its place with 
a simpler, safer, speedier, cheaper, and more ef- 
fectual method of settling difficulties arising from 
injuries unjustly suffered is imperatively de- 
manded. If the people have confidence in their 
friends and the community in which they live, if 
they are willing to appeal to those with whom 
they are acquainted for the rectitude of their 
purposes and their acts, they certainly have a 
tribunal for the adjustment of all controversies 
arising from disputed claims, and protection from 
injuries, actual or threatened ; for these purposes 
we can easily devise and set in operation a plan 
for the adjustment of matters at variance with 
those with whom we deal, and protection from 
personal injury. 

In matters of a civil nature, a system of ad- 
judication can be easily established. Indeed, 
such a system already exists, and is enacted in 



REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. Ill 

the code of our civil procedure. It is by arbi- 
tration. Let it be perfected, and let every well- 
disposed citizen resolve to resort to it. If this 
subject was discussed and made familiar to the 
public mind, and its advantages considered in all 
their bearings, there need be no difficulty in real- 
izing the vast benefits it would confer upon the 
government and society. 

In regard to criminal proceedings, no greater 
difficult}^ exists. Let an officer be elected in 
each local jurisdiction, whose duty will be to ar- 
rest and hold in custody an offender upon the 
complaint of a citizen, issued by the executive 
officer, with proper guards and restrictions. Then 
let the accused select, an arbitrator, and the exe- 
cutive officer one; let these two agree upon a 
third ; if they fail, let the accused select another 
and the officer the same, and so continue until an 
odd number is secured. We have here a court 
and jury in the same body of men, and far better 
qualified to administer justice than any legal 
court in existence, because the courts are bound 
by law and precedents, whereas this body of men 
are perfectly free to make their decision accord- 
ing to the promptings of natural justice and the 
merits of that particular case. Or the arbitrators 
might be drawn from a list of citizens — say one 
hundred. 



112 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

The charge and defense can now be conducted 
in a quiet and speedy manner. Upon submitting 
the case, let a majority determine the verdict; let 
there be no appeal and no further proceedings in 
the matter, except, in case of conviction, the dis- 
position of the criminal. 

The great questions that have long been in 
dispute, and taxed the erudition of the greatest 
minds, involved considerations of law and not of 
justice, whose demands are simple and easily un- 
derstood ; while those of law are extremely com- 
plicated, abounding in subtleties and intricacies 
too deep for a single mind to grasp, as evixlenced 
by the vast accumulation of decisions found in 
"Reports," and carefully preserved and consult- 
ed by the most eminent jurists. Thus litigation 
is tied up in the endless mazes of the law. 

The substitution of a simple, easy, natural 
method would remove a vast burden in the shape 
of courts of law and their attendant officers and 
attorneys. It would save millions upon millions 
to the people which now go to support useless in- 
stitutions and an army of non-producers who 
cause positive mischiefs far in excess of the nega- 
tive injuries the people sustain in supporting 
them. 



STOCK OPERATIONS. 113 

CHAPTER VIII. 

STOCK OPERATIONS, "RINGS," AND "CORNERS." 

"Foul Avarice! dread foe to human weal, 
Inflicting sorrows that thou canst not heal; 
Spirit of the gambler's dreadful fate, 
That lures him on to hell's grim gate." 

Within the last twenty years, speculations in 
stocks, in "rings," and "corners" on the various 
productions of the country have grown into a 
serious evil. 

We read of extensive operations in stocks and 
bonds, and suppose they are made in good faith. 
But such is not the case. Watering stock is a 
process not easily detected. The purpose is to 
obtain larger returns for money invested than 
could be openly charged. There is nothing 
gained in watering stock of a strictly private 
corporation, because no addition is made to its 
value ; but public corporations, whose revenues 
are derived from public service, see the way to 
immense profits through fictitious additions to the 
amount of their capital stock. The people do 
not know what the charges should be, but are 
satisfied that net profits should equal current 
rates of interest. If one million invested is 



114 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

watered to five millions, the investors will draw 
five interests on the amount put in. If the 
capital stock thus inflated can be made to pay- 
interest, its value becomes solid. It is worth in 
the market ichatever sum it will pay dividends on. 
The great fortunes which have been acquired 
within the last twenty years in the United States 
were largely through this process. 

The people would not stand charges for service 
which would enable a corporation to declare a 
dividend of fifty per cent a year on their invest- 
ment ; but if that investment is multiplied by 
ten, thus reducing their rate to five per cent on 
ten times their capital, the matter seems to be 
easily arranged. 

If a laborer should demand pay for nine dum- 
mies of like wages as his own, he would be 
severely and summarily dealt with; but untold 
millions can be drawn from poor laborers by 
scheming capitalists on the same principle, with 
nothing more than a feeble protest. 

These sales are generally fictitious. As many 
causes can be brought to bear to produce fluc- 
tuations in the price of stocks, the chances of 
advance or decline are simply dealt in. Corpo- 
ration rings congregate in money centers, and so 
manipulate as to reduce the price of stocks and 
bonds, purchase largely, and then manipulate so 



STOCK OPERATIONS. 115 

as to advance the price, while the real value is 
not changed during the entire transaction. 

Quotations are dictated in such a manner that 
those not in the secret have no means of know- 
ing their actual value, and by false representa- 
tion are induced to purchase at such figures as 
to sustain a loss in the transaction. Or an oper- 
ator may make a venture and purchase with the 
hope of an advance, and watch his opportunity 
to sell. 

The operation of speculating in stocks becomes 
intensely exciting, as all chance operations always 
do when indulged in. Thousands of dollars will 
sometimes change hands in a few hours, and some- 
times millions are " made " in a Yery few days' 
operation. For instance : 

" A agrees to purchase of B, four days after the 
date, $15,000 in stocks quoted at 93 cents, at 95 
cents, being an advance of two per cent on the 
market price on the day of sale. The stock does 
not advance, and at the time for delivery A pays B 
the margin between the two cents on the dollar and 
the market price. No stock has passed between 
them. It was a fight between a ' bull ' and a i bear' 
for the margin. 

* Nearly all of the financial operations of Wall 
Street brokers are of a like character. Some of 
them involve immense amounts. One man makes 
a fortune and another becomes bankrupt in a day. 
.... Men run about the streets, into the ' gold- 
room ' and the 'clearing-house,' their faces flushed. 



116 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

their whole person excited, their appearance c dis- 
tracted, hair disheveled,' their voices hoarse, all 
intent on making money, not in a legitimate way, 
but by the chance of a rise or fall in bonds and 
stocks."— D. C. Cloud. 

" Corners " are made on pork or wheat, or 
some other staple, by purchasing all in the mar- 
ket, and then holding it for high prices. Advan- 
tage is taken of the supply in the market, or the 
chances of a deficiency of a supply, and often 
millions are realized in this way. 

Combinations of capitalists go into the market, 
and so rule the price of commodities in which 
they deal as to leave no option with the producer, 
as he is not a party to the contract in the sale of 
his products ; indeed, there is no sale ; they are 
simply transferred into the hands of these greedy 
speculators, and there is no alternative left to the 
producer but putting the fruits of his year's toil 
into their hands and at their price, or leaving his 
produce on his farm to rot. They stand between 
him and the market, and shut him out from all 
its advantages. He has no voice in the disposal 
of his own products. 

" Rings " in the channels of trade and business 
continue to get the lion's share of profit from the 
producers of wealth. The channels of business 
are so arranged that the products of the farmer 
pass through too many hands before getting into 



STOCK OPERATIONS. 117 

those of the consumer. Each time they change 
hands a profit must be taken out of them ; and so 
many profits are exacted that, while the producer 
receives barely enough to pay decent wages for 
his labor in producing them, his profits will 
scarcely support his family. 

Thus, by the machinations of a few men, the 
great multitude are kept at hard work, with their 
noses to the grindstone, so to speak, to eke out a 
poor living for themselves, while they are sup- 
porting the few in luxury and general indulgences. 
Those who produce the means of life for the 
world should have, at least, a fair share in the 
world's good things. But things seem to be 
drifting from bad to worse. Produce exchanges 
have been organized for the purpose of increas- 
ing indefinitely the number of times of the sale 
of the farmers' crops, and thus to make the dis- 
tance from the producer to the consumer greater, 
and at the same time to cut down the prices 
to the producer and put them up to the consumer. 
Will these two great classes continue to be hood- 
winked in this way by the plans of the exchange ? 

An adequate and just system of the exchange 
of commodities is a great desideratum of our gov- 
ernment. Production and consumption are the 
vital and ever-pressing necessities of life, and to 
effect that exchange so that nothing is gained or 



118 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

lost by it, but the benefits of it secured, is a prob- 
lem demanding immediate solution, because from 
unjust exchanges arise the evils here treated of, 
and others to be considered hereafter. This ex- 
change requires skill and labor, and therefore costs 
something, and is worth something to the producer 
and consumer. What it costs and ichat it is 
icovili constitute the very essence of this problem. 
What it cost for the exchange by the simplest 
and most direct method is justly added to the 
price for consumption. 

In proof of the evils of this indirect and un- 
just exchange, the farmers point to the enormous 
fortunes accumulated by dealers in their produce 
in short periods of time ; they point to their 
lavish expenditure of money in providing costly 
plans of business, in building magnificent resi- 
dences, and maintaining costly modes of living 
and outfits for their families to appear in. They 
instance the fact that these merchants most 
always have long bank accounts, and can at any 
time when they find a farmer in a tight place 
furnish him with money at a high rate of inter- 
est, provided he is well secured. 

They feel that the monopoly and combination 
are coming to the front and getting control of 
the channels of business and trade, till the small 
business men and farmers have become the 



STOCK OPERATIONS. 119 

" hewers of wood and drawers of water " for 
those who have been so fortunate as to get in- 
side the rings and business combinations. 

Notwithstanding Grangers' Associations, Farm- 
ers' Alliances, Trades Unions, and other organiza- 
tions with a view of checkmating the concentration 
of capital, and combinations for controlling the 
business and trade, these evils from which we 
suffer are still growing and becoming more ag- 
gressive. 

Thus the producer and consumer alike suffer 
by " middle men " pushing the burden of cost 
upon them by increasing the number of ex- 
changes, and cutting down prices to the producer 
and putting them up to the consumer. 

The remedy for these evils is co-operation in 
all the industrial interests of the country. When 
avarice is dethroned and justice rules, then unity 
of interests will secure to all the means of life, 
and ample time and opportunity will be afforded 
for the culture and enjoyment of the higher and 
nobler elements of our being. In the mean time, 
and as a step to this higher condition, let the 
farmers and all others who produce wealth em- 
ploy agents to whom they will consign their 
produce and purchase the necessary goods for 
their consumption. Let, for instance, thirty or 
forty persons agree to pay into a common fund 



120 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

say $10,000, each putting in according to his 
means. Let them meet and elect three of their 
number to act as directors, who shall do the busi- 
ness for the whole. Let these directors enter 
into bonds, as public officers are required to do, 
for the faithful discharge of their duties. Let 
the consignee and agent at the place of market 
receive a certain commission for selling and buy- 
ing, and keep a set of books as a check to those 
kept by the directors. Let a suitable storehouse 
be provided in a central location for the reception 
and distribution of the goods. Let each contrib- 
utor make a memorandum of what he will need 
for the year (or for any other length of time), 
and the approximate cost of the same, for which 
he is entitled to draw from the common store- 
house to the amount of his contribution. Let a 
distributor or clerk who has no interest in the 
matter be employed at a salary to deliver to the 
contributors to the extent of their credit, who 
will also keep a set of books. 

When the goods are stored, let the price be 
marked, including in it the first cost, commission, 
transportation, cost of storage, distribution, and 
compensation of directors as previously agreed 
upon. 

Or let an association of traders and manufac- 
turers furnish the goods and receive the produce, 



STOCK OPERATIONS. 121 

and thus save the agency of " middle men." 
Something like this established among the indus- 
trial classes will save to them the profits that 
now go to enrich a class of non-producers. 

Where a remedy exists, let it be applied: But 
the grand remedy lies in the regulation and protec- 
tion of natural rights. The free exercise of these 
will secure to all the greatest good, measured 
only by the capacity of the people. 

In connection with this subject, it would be 
proper to notice the monopoly of the press. This 
is the worst of all monopolies, not only because 
it prevents the publication of journals on small 
capital, but because intelligence is monopolized. 

The power of the press is everywhere acknowl- 
edged. If devoted to the interests and welfare 
of the whole, its power for good is immeasurable ; 
and no less the evil if given to the service of cor- 
porate power and associated capital in the hands 
of the few. In this, as well as in other cases, 
large capital can only compete with large capital ; 
but in this, the increase of capital offers peculiar 
facilities. The supply of published matter is in- 
creased without a corresponding outlay of expen- 
diture. Thus the second thousand copies of a 
paper is attended with only the additional cost of 
paper, press-work, and the distribution. In case 
of fifty thousand copies, dividing the whole cost 
6 



122 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

by that number, the cost of one thousand would 
be much less proportionally than could be af- 
forded for a single thousand copies. So the 
monopoly is made much easier than that of other 
enterprises. 

In addition to this, the press caters to selfish 
interests, and is effectually controlled in the 
interests of the oligarchy, to monopolize the 
intelligence of the country and shape it so as to 
control public sentiment. We offer the follow- 
ing, copied from an Eastern paper, which will ex- 
plain itself : 

"The real truth concerning the capitalistic 
press of America was uttered by a prominent New 
York journalist at a press dinner a short time since. 
The reunion on that occasion was of men who 
write and do the real work on the papers — the 
drudges. When the hackneyed and ridiculous 
toast, ' The Independent Press,' was proposed, the 
j mrnalist referred to, being called on to respond, 
said he did not wish to do so, but the company in- 
sisted upon it with loud acclamations. He finally 
arose and said : c There is no such a thing in Amer- 
ica as an independent press, unless it is out in 
country towns. You are all slaves. You know it, 
and I know it. There is not one of you who dares 
to express an honest opinion. If you expressed it, 
you would know beforehand that it would never 
appear in print. I am paid $150 for keeping hon- 
est opinions out of the paper I am connected with. 
Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing 
similar things. If I should allow honest opinions 



STOCK OPERATIONS. 123 

to be printed in one issue of my paper, I would be 
like Othello before twenty-four hours: my occupa- 
tion would be gone. 

" l The man who would be so foolish as to write 
honest opinions would be out on the street hunting 
for another job. The business of a New York 
journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to 
pervert, to villify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, 
and to sell his country and his race for his 
daily bread, or for what is about the same — his sal- 
ary. You know this, and I know it; and what 
foolery to be toasting an u Independent Press " ! 
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind 
the scenes. We are jumping-jacks. They pull the 
string and we dance. Our time, our talents, our 
lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other 
men. We are intellectual prostitutes? 

"The bloom of sorrowful conviction fell upon 
the company, and the over-truthful journalist took 
his seat in profound silence." 

The control of telegraphic communication in 
connection with the press places journalism be- 
yond the control of the people. In this way 
public sentiment is swayed in spite of all efforts 
to prevent it. 

Smaller enterprises are shut out because they 
cannot afford to publish at the rates of large es- 
tablishments. Thus the press, a power of incal- 
culable influence, aided by the telegraph, is made 
the instrument of tyranny and oppression. 

What is the remedy for this great monopoly ? 
Patronize publications that enlighten the people 



124 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and advocate their interests, that fearlessly dis- 
cuss all questions connected with human welfare. 
Let the subscription lists of such papers be in- 
creased to tens and hundreds of thousands. 
Then they could be furnished much cheaper and 
become more efficient. Do the people consider 
that by supporting the subsidized press they 
furnish the weapons by which they are robbed, 
and bare their necks for the master's collar ? Is 
it possible that they cannot see this ? 

The people's will, intelligence, and energy 
must combat the corporations' capital ; and thus 
by united effort the monopoly of the press will 
be destroyed. 



NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 125 



CHAPTER IX. 

NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 

"If I'm designed yon lordling's slave — 

By Nature's law designed — 
Why was an independent wish 

E'er planted in my mind? 
If not, why am I subject to 

His cruelty and scorn? 
Or, why has man the will and power 

To make his fellow mourn?" 

Natural rights being founded on the neces- 
sities and requirements of life, and the sole and 
legitimate objects of popular government being 
their regulation and protection, it is proposed 
here to consider them in their relation to such 
government. 

The right of personal liberty has been so 
thoroughly discussed and appreciated that little 
requires to be said in regard to it. The love of 
liberty is so intense that its protection is one 
of the first provisions of civilized life. The 
machinations of ambitious men have secured 
schemes for the accomplishment of their pur- 
poses in absorbing the fruits of labor, and the 
personal liberty of the wealth-producer is more 
favorable for that. Moreover, the interests of 



126 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

such men would rather suffer than otherwise by 
the abridgment of personal liberty. More profit 
can be realized by the labor of those whose means 
of life are controlled than those in whom the em- 
ployer has the right of property. 

The wealth produced by labor is the object 
sought, and the poverty of the wealth-producer 
is the condition that best serves their purposes. 
Therefore it is in the right to the means of life 
we find the subject under consideration. 

1. Right of Land Tenure. 

It is from the soil that all physical sustenance 
is derived ; and as we are constantly consum- 
ing, we must as constantly replenish. Every 
breath we exhale, every muscle we move, every 
thought we think, is at the expense of consumed 
value, and requires as constant a supply. Land 
is the all-sufficient source from which these sup- 
plies are derived ; therefore the occupancy and 
use of the soil becomes a necessity in the pro- 
duction for consumption. 

The value of land, then, consists in its power 
to supply the demand for the consumption of 
values. As all have a claim to these values, 
based on the necessities of life, it follows that 
the right to produce them, either directly from 
the land, or indirectly by enhancing the value of 



NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 127 

its raw productions by manufacture, is equal to 
such claim. In general terms: 

The right to live carries with it the right to 
the means of life ; the means of life are derived 
from the land ; therefore the right to the land, 
to those who desire to occupy and use it, is equal 
to the right to live. 

The regulation and protection of this right is 
one of the essential and most important functions 
of government, and indispensable to the freedom 
and equality of the people. 

The land of a country belongs to the people 
of that country, and it is the duty of the govern- 
ment to secure to all its citizens its fullest possi- 
ble benefits. Land monopoly is robbery; though 
under the forms and sanctions of law, and ratified 
by the decisions of courts, and established by cus- 
tom grown gray with age, still it is robbery. All 
the edicts of autocrats, the bulls of popes, the 
power of legislatures, and the authority of courts 
cannot make a wrong right nor a right wrong ; 
and although untold millions have been impov- 
erished and enslaved by land monopoly, it is no 
less bitter on that account. This evil grows as 
population increases, and it must inevitably result 
in oppression and despotism, landlordism and serf- 
dom. As population increases, the value of the 
land increases just in proportion as the increase 



128 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

of demand gives increased value to supplies. 
Both the cultivated and wild lands of this coun- 
try are rapidly going into the hands of monop- 
olists, who are thus laying the foundation for 
absolute despotism. 

The family is the foundation of society, the 
fountain of virtue, and the basis of government ; 
and the character of that society and government 
will depend very largely upon the permanence 
and ownership of the homes of the people. If 
owned by the occupants, every inducement to 
improve and beautify it is given ; if rented, neg- 
lect of both is the rule. The former conduces to 
sobriety, industry, and social improvement ; the 
latter to recklessness and disorder. These con- 
ditions materially affect the character of the gov- 
ernment. The rental generally takes from the 
tenant all his net profits, which has the effect to 
discourage and impoverish — conditions incompat- 
ible with good government. The rents so de- 
manded go to enrich idleness, build up class 
distinctions, and by destroying equality make 
republican government impossible. 

Therefore, a radical change in the system of 
land tenures is an imperative and absolute ne- 
cessity. Those who live on the land must own 
it, and those who own it must cultivate it. There 
is no more justice or propriety in withholding 



NATURAL EIGHTS CONSIDERED. 129 

land from others for use, or demanding pay for 
the use of it, than there is for withholding sun- 
light or air ; the only difference being that the 
one can be appropriated and the others cannot. 
It is given for the support of all, and not for 
speculation or the upbuilding of power. 

Our fathers sought to avoid the evils of land 
monopoly by proscribing primogeniture and en- 
tails ; but corporations have accumuluted its 
millions where primogeniture has preserved its 
thousands. 

B. S. Heath, of Chicago, has given a clear and 
forcible exposition of this subject. He says : 

"Our fathers recognized this law (primogeni- 
ture), and supposed . they had guarded against its 
abuse and violation by providing equal distribution 
of estates among the heirs of deceased persons. 

"No accumulation of wealth, however large, long 
survives its owner, if left free from legal restraints. 
It was the boast of our people that all were equal 
before the law, and that the prize of wealth was the 
reward of the most industrious and enterprising. 
As a rule, the heirs of wealth soon squander their 
patrimony. They were the autumn frosts which 
caused the leaves of the summer's growth to fall 
back to enrich the labor soil, to be again gathered 
up by the resolute and ambitious sons of poverty. 
As a rule, the rich men were the c self-made men. 5 

" In this way the wealth accumulations of each 
generation fall like the dews of heaven upon the 
toilers of the next ; and thus social conditions were 
equalized. Consequently there were few paupers 

6* 



130 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and fewer millionaires. Comparative equality of 
social conditions formed a deep and permanent 
foundation for a just and permanent government, 

equable laws, and purity of administration 

The productive forces of society consisted of muscle 
and brain. 

" Since that time great changes have taken place. 
Occult forces, never dreamed of, have supplanted 
skill and muscle. A ton of coal and a hogshead of 
water will do the work of a hundred men. The 
steam-horse and his train of a hundred tons fly like 
meteors from town to town and from ocean to 
ocean. The lightnings have been harnessed to the 
car of thought, and messages are flashed over the 
continent and across the ocean sooner than the 
post-boy of a century ago could saddle his horse. 
Our houses are warmed and lighted and the motive 
power of the nation's manufactures and commerce 
are supplied from the storehouses of nature, which 
were locked against the generation of fifty years 
ago. These have been developed outside the Con- 
stitution. To handle and control them a new class 
of persons, unknown to the framers of our govern- 
ment, have been created. Corporations instead of 
men have come to the front. Upon these new ele- 
ments and forces incorporated greed and avarice 
have seized, as the Norman conqueror seized upon 
the wealth resources of Britain, and upon these a 
new empire has been established in the land of the 
free outside of the Constitution and the people. 

" Upon them a new feudal system has been inau- 
gurated and a new law of primogeniture established. 
Corporations are substitutes for dukedoms, baronies, 
and lordships, and the estates of this new feudalism 
are as effectually immortalized by government 
charters as were their prototypes by the Magna 
Charta. And the perpetuation of these estates, 



NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 131 

with their increasing annual accumulations from 
the labor soil, will as surely impoverish, degrade, 
and enslave American society as the same causes 
have exhausted the manhood of England, as their 
possessions and capacity for absorption are greater. 
"Our Constitution must be enlarged so as to em- 
brace these monopolies and bring them into subjec- 
tion to the people's interests, or they will root out 
the Constitution and establish an aristocracy upon 
the ruins of liberty and constitutional government." 

It is affirmed, and will be clearly shown in these 
pages, that the condition so forcibly described 
above already exists. It is only the comparative 
sparseness of population that prevents the devel- 
opment of a system even worse than that cf Irish 
landlordism ; for had the territorial limits not 
been enlarged, a condition worse than European 
peasantry would have overtaken us long ago. 
These limits are reached, or nearly so ; and as 
the land is rapidly going into a few hands, the 
power that monopoly gives will crush out the 
liberties of the people ; for he who owns the land 
by the authority of our land laws owns and con- 
trols those who live upon it, provided they can- 
not get off, and the press of population will soon 
prevent them. 

The value of land consists in its power to sup- 
ply the demands of consumption, and a popula- 
tion to create such demand. Without population, 
land of the greatest fertility and with all the 
appurtenances of natural resources would be 



182 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

totally valueless, and justice demands that they 
who create it should have and enjoy it; but under 
our laws of land tenure, that value goes to the 
monopolizers of the land without their adding 
anything to its value. If all who desire to oc- 
cupy and use the land could do so, that value 
would go to them. Thus equality of conditions 
growing out of equality of rights would secure 
freedom and prosperity to the people. 

The right to hold the land and secure a 
permanent title to it should be most carefully 
guarded, and should descend by equal inheri- 
tance by legal provisions. The law of primogeni- 
ture and entail are virtually in force, since the 
owner of land can devise, by gift or otherwise, 
his entire possessions to one person and secure 
perpetuity by corporate charter. The rights of 
future generations should be protected as well as 
the living. 

Monopoly of land gives to the holders of it 
the power to levy contributions upon the cultiva- 
tors of it ; which power is granted by usurped 
rights in direct violation of the law of justice. 
It is equally as unjust to demand tribute for the 
use of land as to lay a tribute on the personal 
service of another for private gain. Land is 
given for the use of all : it is the product of 
none ; and as all need its products, all are equally 
entitled to the right to produce them. 



FINANCE. 133 



CHAPTER X. 

NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED). — 
FINANCE. 

" The simplest and most perfect form of currency is that 
which represents nothing but transferable debt, and of which 
the material is of no intrinsic value, such as paper. It is 
only when states have reached a high degree of civilization 
that they adopt this perfect form; before they attain that, 
the material of it entirely consists of something which 
has an intrinsic value, such as gold or silver."— MacLeod. 

The exchange of values is a necessity of civil- 
ized nations, and requires a medium of currency 
to effect such exchange. This medium is money. 
It is a token or representative of value based 
upon the wealth of the nation, and by the 
authority of the government declared a legal 
tender for all debts, public and private. The 
issue of such money and the control of its vol- 
ume in circulation are natural rights, the free 
use and exercise of which are the indispensable 
requisites of republican government. 

The question of finance is one of pressing and 
vital importance to the people of a free govern- 
ment. The principles involved in it and their 
application to the best uses of life must be clearly 
understood. 



134 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

Finance is one of the chief factors in political 
economy, and largely governs the distribution of 
wealth equally, and thus serves its true purpose, 
or unequally, and thus overthrows republican 
government, as the people are wise or unwise. 
Equal distribution depends on equal exchange, 
which is the sole function of money. By it 
wealth is secured to the producers of it for 
their enjoyment and benefit, resulting in peace, 
plenty, and happiness. By unequal distribution, 
millionaires and paupers are made, monopolies 
built up to rob and oppress, thereby creating 
political inequalities, the legitimate outcome of 
which is the relation of rulers and ruled, master 
and slave. 

Because of its vast importance, it has been 
controlled in the interest of the few who have 
managed to secure its power to themselves. 
They have clothed it in mystery and woven 
around it such an intricate network of theories 
and speculations that the people despair of com- 
prehending its nature and functions, thus secur- 
ing to those few its control for their own benefit. 
Through the monstrous robbery of banking sys- 
tems, millions upon millions have been drawn 
from industry to enrich idleness ; and the people 
tolerate this because they do not understand the 
means by which it is done. 



FINANCE. 135 

Had the people fully understood this impor- 
tant subject, they would never have been cursed 
with a bonded debt ; with banking corporations 
established for no other purpose than individual 
aggrandizement : with a restricted basis for 
money, -enabling greedy and unscrupulous spec- 
ulators to control its volume, and thus take ad- 
vantage of the necessities of "industry, to levy 
contributions upon it under the name of interest 
for the privilege of using it ; with the stagnation 
of business and the ruin of many industrial enter- 
prises ; and many other evils consequent upon a 
false and defective monetary system, as the inev- 
itable and calamitous results to the people. 

As an instrument of exchange, it has no intrin- 
sic value. It being only a legal power, there 
was no necessity of creating a debt, for money is 
simply a legal device for exchanging one com- 
modity for another, or a service for a commodity, 
by which the holder of it can at any time or 
place within the jurisdiction of the government 
demand any commodity within the circle of ex- 
change, or service seeking compensation. 

Since money has for its sole and legitimate ob- 
ject and function the equal exchange of values, 
whereby equal distribution is effected, every 
wealth-producer could by such exchange retain 
and enjoy the full value of the wealth he pro- 



136 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

duced in any and every commodity he needs or 
desires. No one could become excessively rich, 
for he could not accumulate by exchanges — for 
they would be equal ; and none need be poor or 
dependent, for, based upon the equality of ex- 
change, the race for wealth would be free and 
open for all. 

To show the benefits of a true monetary sys- 
tem and the evils of a false one, and the power 
•of money corporations to rob and enslave the 
people, the following definitions and illustrations 
will suffice : 

Market value is based on intrinsic or real val- 
ue, and is determined by the law of supply and 
demand, and is simply the money expression 
[price] of such value. The variations of supply, 
the demand remaining fixed, or the variations 
of demand, the supply remaining fixed — such 
variations determining the price — are expressed 
in money; and as money represents value, as 
long as the volume of money remains fixed ag- 
gregate values remain unchanged. If supply 
increases, prices go down just to that point 
that any given quantity will amount to the same 
money value. Thus, if the money volume be one 
million dollars, and all commodity values one 
million bushels of wheat, the price will be one 
dollar a bushel ; if the supply of the commodity 



FINANCE. 137 

is doubled, the value it represents (one million 
dollars) remaining fixed, the price is reduced to 
that point that the given quantity will amount 
to the same money value — that is, two million of 
bushels at half a dollar a bushel just equals one 
million at one dollar a bushel. The converse is 
equally true : the supply reduced one half, the 
price will be two dollars a bushel. In a season 
favorable for production, the increased supply 
will bring only the same money value ; the low 
price is supplemented by increase of commodities. 
In a season unfavorable, the diminished supply 
will bring the same money value ; because it will 
be supplemented by high prices. 

Free from all modifying conditions, this is the 
law of market values. Fluctuations of supply 
and demand are in a great measure beyond hu- 
man control ; but by the increase in the power of 
production, as science and the arts advance, and 
facilities for transportation increase, these fluctu- 
ations can be materially controlled. 

On the other hand, the variations in the vol- 
ume of money affects prices as effectually ; and 
this volume is wholly under human control ; for 
so long as it is uniform, its representative value 
remains fixed, but any change in volume carries 
with it a corresponding change in value. Thus, 
in the illustration above given, doubling the vol- 



138 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

ume of money would reduce its value, as ex- 
pressed in units, to one half, and the money 
expression in wheat would be two dollars a 
bushel ; reducing the volume to one half would 
double its unit value, and wheat would be half 
a dollar a bushel. By changing its volume we 
change its unit value; and since prices are ex- 
pressed in units of value, market price is changed 
to correspond with changed value of the unit, 
and though aggregate values are not affected, 
prices are, which enable those who control the 
money volume to take advantage of the fluctua- 
tions they create. 

The evils arise from the unsteady and fluctuat- 
ing volume of money, whereby prices, which are 
money expressions of value, change without 
change of supply of commodities. Prices are 
thus controlled by those who control the volume 
of money, thus leaving the wealth-producer at 
the mercy of the money-changer. 

Since the unit value of money increases as the 
volume diminishes, and debts are estimated in 
units of value, their value increases in propor- 
tion as the volume is reduced. If A contracts 
a debt when the volume of money is $50 per 
capita, and the volume is reduced to $ 25 per cap- 
ita, the value of his debt is doubled ; if it 
would require a thousand bushels of wheat to 



FINANCE. 139 

pay it at the time he contracted it, upon a change 
of volume, as above noticed, it would require 
two thousand bushels, the supply of commodities 
remaining the same. 

The total amount of debts in the United States 
— public and private — is over twenty billions, 
most of which was contracted when the volume 
of money was double its present volume. Be- 
sides interest, it will cost the debtors nearly 
double that amount to pay their debts. 

With an adequate volume of money, prices 
are firm and steady (for demand is very nearly 
uniform from year to year), and industry is stim- 
ulated and encouraged, and wealth increases. 
Diminish the volume, credit for a time takes the 
place of money, and business goes on for a while ; 
but obligations must be met, money increases in 
value as it diminishes in volume, and debts in- 
crease in the same proportion. Prices go down, 
the demand for labor diminishes, industry lan- 
guishes, and thus what the wealth-producers lose 
the money-changers gain. 

After debts have been paid and balances ad- 
justed on the basis of increased money value, 
the volume is increased ; prices go up, business 
is revived, enterprises are extended, and every- 
thing begins to prosper, and will continue so long 
as the volume of money keeps up. Another con- 



140 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

traction, and the same evil results to the people 
follow. The control of supplies — that is, power 
of production — is in a great measure dependent 
on the facilities afforded by an adequate volume 
of money ; but as a rule, price is controlled by 
the volume of money and determines the amount 
of values that go to the money-changers, or that 
which remains in the hands of those who pro- 
duce it. 

If the law declares that money shall be stamped 
on only one material, and that material limited in 
quantity, it can be controlled by individuals and 
corporations, and thus labor and all its products 
will be controlled and its net profits go to them ; 
but if the material upon which it is stamped be 
abundant and merely nominal in value, the vol- 
ume of money can at all times be adjusted to the 
requirements of the industrial interests of the na- 
tion, and controlled by the people for their use 
and benefit. 

The first theory of creating money (that of 
intrinsic value) is open to several serious and 
one fatal objection. Among the serious ones are 
the limited supply of the material, the cost of 
its production, and the destruction of its com- 
modity value when coined into money. Its fatal 
objection consists in the power it has to measure 
all values — by representing them — thus giving 



FIXAXCE. 141 

its holders the command of all values, and con- 
trolling the most important function of govern- 
ment. 

" It may be truly and incontrovertibly said that 
the power of money over the affairs of enterprise 
and labor is omnipotent ; and that they who con- 
trol the money of a people, control their destinies 
as surely and irresistibly as the sun controls the 
movements of the planets of the solar system. For 
those who control the character of people's money 
thereby have it in their power to fix the price of all 
kinds of property and labor at any conceivable 
rate, and to change the rates or prices from time 
to time, as their private interests dictate/' — Bryant 
on Money. 

This power of law vested in corporations is 
despotism. Such is the law — a monetary sys- 
tem based on the " precious metals," that enable 
a few to control the many and hold the entire 
productive interests of the people in their hands. 
And the people profess to be free, pretend they 
have a government founded on their natural 
rights, and that they are in the full and free 
enjoyment of them ! 

" It is such considerations as these," says the 
same writer, " coupled with the knowledge his- 
tory gives us of l man's inhumanity to man,' 
that forces us to acknowledge that it is unstates- 
manlike, unjust, and even inhuman to have so 
despotic a power as that which resides in and 



142 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

flows from the quantity of the people's money, to 
any principle based on mere chance like the dis- 
covery or exhaustion of gold and silver mines, 
or to the justice of any body of men, no matter 
what their pretensions may be to intelligence, 
respectability, or honor. It is a question of gov- 
eminent, not a whit less fundamental and impor- 
tant than that of the liberties of the people." 

The true method for the exchange of values is 
by a legal instrument, the creature of law, based 
upon the wealth and credit of the nation and 
the authority of the government. It expresses 
three powers, and only three : first, it must 
represent the value of all exchangeable com- 
modities : this is its power to exchange values; 
second, it must bear upon its face the unit of 
value : this is its power to estimate and compute 
values ; third, to provide for time-transactions, it 
must be receivable for all debts and dues, public 
and private. By this legal-tender power, it pro- 
tects the debtor from the avarice and tyranny of 
the creditor. It represents value, therefore it 
should be wherever value is, either in labor or 
its products. It is a universal acknowledgment 
of value given, and a universal willingness to 
accept it for any purchasable thing or the can- 
cellation of any pecuniary obligation. So those 
who desire it can readily exchange any exchange- 



FINANCE. 143 

able value they desire for it ; those who hold it 
can command any service or commodity in the 
market, transfer or convert values into other 
values, and protect themselves from all obligations 
to their financial creditors. 

Value belongs to those who produce it with 
their own means. All expend values in con- 
sumption, whether they earn them or not ; con- 
sequently, those who do not produce must 
subsist on those who do ; for since justice requires 
equality v of exchange, there can be no accumula- 
tion by the instrument of exchange ; therefore, 
he who consumes without in some way producing 
value is an object of charity, a beggar, a thief, 
or a robber. To effect the fair and equal ex- 
change of values is the sole purpose and legiti- 
mate function of money. It possesses no intrinsic 
value ; therefore, to receive pay for its use would 
be like receiving pay for the use of any other 
legal power that does not possess intrinsic value. 

Without going into details to show that our 
exchanges through the agency of money are 
unfair, it is only necessary to point to the fact 
that producers, as a class, are poor, and those 
who produce nothing, but control the medium of 
exchange (money), are as a class wealthy. All 
the money employed in the industrial pursuits of 
the country is borrowed at a rate of interest 



144 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

far above the power to increase net wealth by 
productive labor. This condition of things must 
in the end impoverish the wealth-producers. 

We cannot maintain free government with our 
present financial system, for such government is 
founded on political equality, and this cannot ex- 
ist where wealth is accumulated in the hands of 
the few. Where there is great wealth there must 
be great poverty. 

Palaces and hovels, millionaires and paupers, 
masters and slaves, are the inevitable condition 
of the exercise of vested powers granted to cor- 
porations by which the volume of money is con- 
trolled. Such wealth builds up and fosters 
aristocracy ; creates lords and serfs, proud and 
haughty rulers, and meek and submissive slaves. 

" Money," says Professor Bonamy Price, an 
acknowledged authority in political economy, " is 
the tool of exchange, the instrument of obtaining 
for its present possessor some commodity or ser- 
vice which is desired. It derives its power from 
the law, and is not dependent on any kind of ma- 
terial." 

The following illustration will show the power 
of law to make money : 

" Law can make that money which costs little to 
produce it immensely more valuable than that which 
was produced at a great outlay of labor. Law can 



FINANCE. 145 

give a paper dollar a hundred or a thousand times 
greater value or purchasing power than a gold or 
other kind of dollar, in despite of the fact that the 
gold dollar cost perhaps a hundred times as much 
as the paper dollar. One might term this the mir- 
acle of law, since the same is not true of anything 
else produced by man. This truth arises entirely 
from the fact practically to regulate the quantity 
of money issued or permitted to circulate ; and from 
the further fact, the quality of any one or several 
kinds of money is utterly the creature of law — the 
law makes it a full or restricted legal tender, or not 
a legal tender at all. We can illustrate this fact 
regarding the principles of money by supposing the 
United States were to issue say fifty millions of 
paper dollars, and make them the only legal tender 
to pay any tax or debt due the government, and 
say five hundred millions of silver dollars, and 
make them the only legal money to pay private 
debts due from one person to another, and say one 
hundred millions of gold dollars which are not a 
legal tender for any purpose whatever, leaving the 
people free to accept or reject them just as they 
pleased. What would be the result of this action 
of our government ? Simply this : the law of sup- 
ply and demand would at once assert itself, and 
work in combination with what the law had de- 
creed regarding the money whereby there had been 
created three kinds and three qualities of money. 
Whereas, if the law regarding each had been the 
same, there would have been but one kind and one 
quality, even if it were made of a hundred different 
materials. As every tax or debt due to the gov- 
ernment would have to be paid in paper dollars, 
thereby creating an enormous demand, which could 
only be met by the small supply of fifty millions of 



146 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

paper dollars, they would have a very high premium 
over the gold or silver dollars. But one thing is 
obvious and certain: those who could get control 
of the paper dollars would exact any price they 
pleased for them. The supply of silver dollars, 
being adequate for the demand for them in con- 
ducting the exchanges of the country, we may sup- 
pose no premium could be exacted for them. But 
the gold dollars, not being money at all — for noth- 
ing is money save that which is made a legal tender 
in payment of debts — would certainly fall to a dis- 
count, the amount of which would be fixed by the 
loss and expense necessary in case of exporting 
them for recoinage into other money of any nation 
using gold for money. 

"I challenge any two political economists of 
world-wide reputation to publicly deny over their 
own names but what such would be the result ne- 
cessarily flowing upon such action on the part of the 
government of the United States or any other nation. 
None will dare to do it, since such an act would 
brand them among all scientists as infamous scoun- 
drels who have accepted a bribe and degraded 
themselves to the level of newspaj>er editors and 
other hirelings who champion lies of that character 
against the truth and against the interests of man- 
kind."-^ IT. Bryant. 

The above illustration shows how, during the 
Civil War, gold went up so high — at one time to 
285. It was made by law the only money, with 
the exception presently to be noted, that was a 
full legal tender for all government debts and 
dues ; and by its scarcity it was hoarded by bank- 
ers, brokers, and speculators, who caused the 



FINANCE. 147 

currency of the country to be shorn of its power 
to pay government dues. 

Bonds were issued in large quantities and pur- 
posely depreciated and made purchasable dollar 
for dollar in this inferior kind of money. The 
law also made this paper currency, which was 
inferior to gold, convertible into bonds when 
they were cheap, and the debts due to the gov- 
ernment payable only in gold when gold was 
dear, so as to enable the government to pay the 
interest on the bonds in gold, and thus it was 
gathered back into the hands of the money lords. 
After the bonds had advanced in value and had 
been bought up with the paper currency pur- 
posely made an inferior money, they were then 
destroyed, thus converting the people's money into 
an interest-hearing debt to the amount of twelve 
hundred millions of dollars. 

But the first issue of the paper currency to the 
amount of sixty millions was a full legal tender, 
and performed all the functions of gold and kept 
at par with it during all its fluctuations. So we 
see that money is solely a creature of the law, 
and its purchasing power, its ability to exchange 
values, depends on the quality and quantity in 
circulation. Its quality is its legal power, and its 
quantity in circulation determines its value. 

Since a change of volume does not affect the 



148 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

aggregate of values, but the value of the money, 
it is easy to make it dear and prices cheap by 
simply changing the relation of quantities. This 
power to regulate prices and keep them uniform 
determines the production and distribution of 
wealth, and consequently the freedom, pros- 
perity, and happiness of the people ; or if con- 
trolled by corporate power vested by law, then 
popular government is at an end. 

Webster said, at the foot of Bunker Hill, 
"The freest government cannot long endure 
where the tendency of the law is to create a 
rapid accumulation of property in the hands of 
the few and to render the masses poor and de- 
pendent." The result of all this is thus summed 
up in the language of C. W. Stanton : 

" Let us look back a few years. In 1862, the two 
exceptions in the Legal-Tender Act caused the green- 
backs to depreciate to forty cents on the dollar, and 
this act enabled the Shylocks to reap a harvest of 
$700,500,000 at the expense of the farmers and in- 
dustries of the country. Again, in 1863, the Na- 
tional Banking Act was passed, creating the most 
colossal money oligarchy and monopoly that ever 
damned a nation since the foundation of the world. 
In 1866 we find the Contraction Act, which reduced 
our currency from $1,800,000,000 to $700,000,000. 
This act prostrated every industry, paralyzed every 
enterprise, and bankrupted over a hundred thousand 
business men and firms, throwing labor out of em- 
ployment, filling the country with tramps and crim- 



FINANCE. 149 

inals, and destroying over half the value of the 
national wealth* Let us turn over a leaf to 1869. 
We find the Credit-Strengthening Act, changing the 
5.20 bonds from currency (lawful money) to coin, 
giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the bond- 
holders and taking it from the farmers and laborers 
of the nation, and saddling on us an immortalized 
burden of debt and interest. Another leaf, and we 
find the Refunding Act of 1870, perpetuating the 
public debt, instead of paying it by refunding the 
5.20's into coin bonds payable at the option of 
the United States. Then comes the Demonetiza- 
tion Act of 1873, depriving us of the use of silver 
to pay the coin obligations they have saddled upon 
us, establishing the single gold basis, and adding 40 
per cent to the value of all money obligations, and 
40 per cent to the debt burdens of the people. 

u One leaf more. Look at the work of 1875, and 
we will have all we can digest at one time. What 
do we find? The Redemption Act, authorizing the 
redemption, retirement, and actual loss to the pro- 
ducers of wealth of over $418,000,000 of legal 
tender and fractional currency, for no other pur- 
pose than to make room for the national bank cur- 
rency, thus giving the bondholders control of our 
circulating medium, with power to inflate or con- 
tract it at pleasure, to fix values on our produce 
and our homes — in short, to hold the destinies of 
this country in their iron grasp. We have already 
paid the national banking corporations $1,800,000,- 
000 for the special privilege of furnishing the cur- 
rency for us, and yet no one will claim that it 
serves the purpose of money better than the legal- 
tender greenbacks that cost the people nothing; 
yet the greenbacks were withdrawn and interest- 
bearing bonds substituted — for what? — to create 



150 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and sustain a perpetual basis for national banks 
and rob the people of thousands of dollars annu- 
ally. Farmers and laborers, will you longer bow 
down and worship this Juggernaut, or voluntarily 
throw yourselves under its ponderous wheels, or 
stand idly by while it grinds out the last drop of 
blood, the life of the nation? Every thinking 
farmer and laborer feels that there is something 
wrong, and unless we right these wrongs our 
national liberty will be lost, and we go down 
into history, like Greece and Rome, our column 
broken." 



BANKING SYSTEM. 151 



CHAPTER XI. 

NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED"). 
FINANCE. — BANKING SYSTEM. 

" O power of Greed clothed in Deception's garb I 
To drain the wealth that labor gives, 
Assumes the Law's majestic form, 
And on the toils of others lives." 

The limited supply of gold and silver requires 
the currency to be supplemented by credit. To 
secure the benefits of credit to the money-deal- 
ers, banks of issue are instituted. 

Banks are chartered in order to furnish the 
people with a public representative of value. If 
this were their real purpose, such representative 
of value should be issued and controlled by the 
General Government, and in such volume as to 
dispense with the necessity of credit. But credit 
is a source of wealth to the money-dealers, and 
banks are the machinery by which that credit is 
utilized. Money is said to bear such and such a 
rate of interest ; it is the obligation given for the 
use of money that bears the interest ; the debtor 
pays interest on his debt, that is, he is compelled 
to pay a penalty for being a debtor, which goes to 
the creditor, who receives a premium for the priv- 



152 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

ilege of taking from the debtor that which does 
not belong to him. The secret of success of 
banking consists in the debtor receiving interest 
on Ms debts. The following, from the " American 
Sentry," presents the matter clearly, thus : 

cc The c Sentry ' briefly states the facts herein- 
after mentioned, in order to bring them pointedly 
before the minds of its readers, and earnestly asks 
that each will carefully weigh their import in their 
bearing upon the cause of equal justice to all, the 
welfare of our people, and the perpetuity of our 
republic. 

" Bank notes when issued simjDly prove that the 
corporation issuing them owes the holder thereof, 
and is indebted to the amount represented by such 
notes 

u When a bank loans its notes and collects in- 
terest therefor, it charges and receives interest on 
what it owes. 

" Laws that either directly or indirectly compel 
the people to receive and use as money the evi- 
dences of corporate indebtedness, for the benefit of 
corporations, as in the case of national-bank-note 
issues, are grossly despotic, oppressive, and wicked, 
and are of necessity the deadly foes of the people's 
rights. 

"By authorizing banks to issue their notes for 
use as money, and destroying the people's money — 
greenbacks and other Treasury notes — to such an 
extent that there was not enough of them left to 
carry forward the business of the country, Congress 
compels the people to have recourse to and use 
bank notes as money, and by that circumlocution 
to pay interest to banks on what banks owe. 



BANKING SYSTEM. 153 

" In order to more effectually force the masses 
to take and use as money the bits of paper that 
simply represent the debts of bank corporations, 
and thus become the slaves of and pay tribute to 
them, Congress, by a law printed upon the back of all 
national bank notes, compels their acceptance ' for all 
salaries and other debts and demands owing by the 
United States to individuals, corporations, and as- 
sociations within the United States, except interest 
on public debt.' So, when government pays inter- 
est to banks on the bonds they own, it cannot com- 
pel them to receive their own notes in payment of 
such interest, although the banks' notes are good 
enough money for the payments by government of 
all but the bondholders' claims. 

" Monstrous and degrading as the fact is, the 
American people are tamely submitting to the com- 
pulsory use by them as money of bits of paper that 
are nothing but proofs of corporations' debts, and 
for that privilege, if it can be called such, are cheer- 
fully paying to national banks interest on what the 
banks owe, as well as on the bonds they own. Do 
the people realize that to enable corporations to 
filch from them interest on their own debts, Congress 
has prostituted its trust, and by law has made cor- 
porations ' notes a legal tender for the payment of 
debts and dues by the government, in order to force 
the use of such notes as money ? 

"No wonder that these despotic corporations re- 
gard a system that enables them to extort interest 
on their debts from, the people as i the best bank- 
ing system the world ever saw.' What despot 
could ask for more or desire more willing, abject 
slaves than the American people are to national 
banks?" 

7* 



154 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

But this is not all. " Causes," says Kellogg, 
" are felt to be in operation which the people can- 
not comprehend — the changes in market value 
of property and in the prices of labor are ac- 
counted for by the abundance or scarcity of 
money ; but why money is scarce at one time 
and abundant at another is to the great body of 
the people utterly unknown." 

The business of the country is chiefly depend- 
ent on comparatively a few individuals, vested 
with power to issue bank notes. It is supposed 
that banks are instituted for public use, and that 
a large capital is required to operate them ; but 
in the case of national banks, the capital in- 
vested is capital already invested whose stocks 
are at a high premium in the market ; so these 
bankers receive profits on their credits as well as 
on their debts. 

But they are allowed to issue more than 
their capital invested. A privilege is granted 
by the government to a corporation to issue 
bank notes bearing no interest, and exchange 
them for indorsed notes of the people bearing 
interest ; and in this way operate largely on 
a fictitious capital. A bank with a capital of 
$50,000 issues $150,000 in bank notes, for which 
interest is charged. At 7 per cent, an annual 
income of 7,000 would be realized upon a purely 
fictitious capital. 



BANKING SYSTEM. 155 

This method of supplying the people with 
money is claimed to be both just and safe ! It is 
not necessary to discuss the justice of such a 
method. A currency that the government is in 
duty bound to supply to the full requirements of 
business and trade is scantily supplied by the 
banks, which by the necessity of a medium of 
exchange is made to take the place of money, 
and a rate of interest charged above the ifet 
profits of labor. It is not necessary to show by 
this operation who are enriched and who are im- 
poverished. 

Before the national banking system was estab- 
lished, banks were established by the authority 
of State charters throughout all the States, in 
some of which the wildest speculations were car- 
ried on. In 1849 the Legislature of Connecticut 
created a commission to report upon the banks 
of that State. An extract of that report is here 
presented. 

" By the foregoing table it will be seen that the 
average amount of specie held by the banks in the 
State of Connecticut for twelve years was $478,719, 
while the average amount of their loans to the 
public during the same period was $11,669,457, 
more than twenty-four and one-third times as much 
money as the banks had specie. The annual inter- 
est on $11,669,457 was $700,197. If they could 
have loaned only their specie, the interest would 
have amounted to but $28,723. The banks gained 



156 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

from the public annually, $671,444 above the inter- 
est on their specie, and in the twelve years $8,057,- 
328. They collected this interest in advance, and 
made their dividends half-yearly to their stock- 
holders ; therefore it is proper to compound this in- 
terest half-yearly, which would swell their gains to 
nearly $12,000,000, that is to say, $1,000,000 inter- 
est annually. These were actual gains, as much 
realized by these banks as if they had produced and 
sold §700,167 worth of agricultural products in 
each year." — Kellogg'' s New Monetary System, p. 
204. 

It would be interesting to inquire what the 
people of Connecticut received in return for the 
million dollars they paid to the banks. The nat- 
ural rights of the people demand a volume of 
money to meet all the requirements of industry 
and trade, to go into circulation in obedience to 
the demand for it in exchanging values, and a 
tribute levied upon it is sheer robbery, no less 
such because clothed in legal raiment. Thus 
banks are institutions established by law for the 
benefit of the few at the expense of the many, 
vested in corporations to legalize robbery ! 

The following, from the pen of T. A. Bland, 
M. D., is very appropriate here : 

" Banks are foes to justice and equality always. 
They sent their coin to Europe or locked it in their 
vaults just at the time the government most needed 
it. They then suspended payment on their notes, 
which of course caused them to depreciate rapidly. 



BANKING SYSTEM. 157 

These depreciated promises to pay were offered to 
the government on a par basis, at six per cent in- 
terest in limited amount. Secretary Chase soon 
discovered that the banks were broken reeds. He 
asked Congress to anthorize the issue of Treasury 
notes. It was done. The bankers took the alarm. 
This policy if continued would render the govern- 
ment and the people independent of the banks. 
The first issue of greenbacks, S60, 000,000, were a 
full legal tender. They were as good as coin. Then 
the bankers formed an association, and appointed a 
committee of seventy -two leading bankers, and sent 
them to Washington to advise Congress on the 
subject of finances. Under the influences of this 
committee, Congress committed what Thaddeus 
Stevens denounced as a crime against the Ameri- 
can people. The greenback was demonetized. Of 
course it depreciated. The next move was to get 
Congress to pass a National Banking law, and to 
authorize the sale of government bonds to raise 
funds to carry on the war. The bankers bought 
the bonds with their own depreciated . currency and 
with depreciated greenbacks, dollar for dollar. 
They then deposited these interest-bearing bonds 
with the government, and got their face value in 
currency printed and guaranteed by the govern- 
ment. The banking ring was now intrenched in 
the public treasury, with substantially absolute con- 
trol of the finances of the country; hence, with 
the power to rob the government and the people at 
will. It still holds the fort, and so strong and rich 
has it grown, that it controls both the Republican 
and Democratic parties. It tramples freedom and 
justice under its feet. It is the most stupendous, 
the most arrogant, and the most oppressive monop- 
oly ring that ever existed on this continent. It 



158 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

must be broken, and the power to issue and control 
the currency restored to the people, or the repub- 
lic will perish and liberty die." 

The national banks, from a capital of $483,- 
104,218, are able to loan $1,238,286,325. This 
shows clearly the ability of the banks to do busi- 
ness on other people's money and furnish a cir- 
culating medium at the people's expense. 



TRANSPORTATION. 159 



CHAPTER XII. 

NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED). — 
TRANSPORTATION. 

" All nature smiles in joy serene, 

In freedom's holy light, 
But man's unholy love of power 

Brings on the gloom of night. 
Insatiate greed inspires his soul, 

Insatiate lust his heart; 
Unmeasured wealth by his control 

Unmeasured powers impart." 

Transportation and travel have become a 
necessity in the present stage of civilization, and 
the interests of society and the welfare of all in- 
dustries and enterprises depend upon it. The 
best modes and cheapest rates, together with the 
ownership and control of operating all lines of 
travel and transportation, are rights inherent in 
the people. So extensive are these operations, 
involving such a vast amount of capital, that in 
the present selfish condition of society they can- 
not be intrusted to private enterprise with safety 
to the people. This we say in the light of facts 
and experience. He must be a very obtuse ob- 
server who does not see the ominous attitude of 
railroad corporations, who derive all their privi- 



160 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

leges and means primarily from the people, and 
seek to override them and prey upon them. To 
the reflective observer, who sees this hostile atti- 
tude and the inevitable conflict that is impending, 
the subject must be of intense interest. Through 
the agency and manipulations of law, corpora- 
tions arise, increase in power, and multiply in 
numbers, until the capital associated and consol- 
idated becomes an irresistible power ; lesser cap- 
ital, operated by single individuals, yields to its 
mighty sway, and in all the great enterprises 
of manufacture, transportation, trade, and com- 
merce, they rule with an iron hand and impe- 
rious will. The most alarming feature of this 
despotic domination is the manner in which it is 
done. Unlike the bandit chiefs and piratic 
crews who seek immunity by evading the law, 
they seize upon the citadel of the law itself, or- 
ganize their» forces, and carry on their depreda- 
tions under the form and in the name of the law 
and the sanction of the government. This is 
despotism. In the palmiest days of Italian brig- 
andage, the people were not robbed so flagrant- 
ly ; the difference being their open hostility to 
the law; but in our case, under the mask and 
with the sanction of the law. " Of all the tri- 
umphs of invention, none are more wonderful 
than those by which the hard-earned gains of 



TRANSPORTATION. 161 

millions are forcibly conveyed to the vaults of 
robber princes. No business is more highly or- 
ganized, more strenuously pursued, more success- 
fully managed, than the business of robbery." 
It is, under all its elaboration of method, more 
than robbery. By the slow process of starvation 
and premature death by overwork, it is murder. 

It is by means of force evolved by heat, and 
machinery for the reception and distribution of 
that force, that such vast monopolies are carried 
on. A ton of coal will evolve a power greater 
than the combined force of a hundred men. The 
machinery to operate that force and the coal are 
not so expensive as a hundred men, and the dif- 
ference is in favor of the capitalist. While it 
consumes comparatively little, it produces com- 
paratively much. This double advantage is in 
favor of corporate capital; and thus cheap power 
and labor-saving machinery, by monopolizing the 
expansive power of heat and the advantage of 
mechanical contrivances, which are natural forces 
and advantages, and therefore the equal heritage 
of all, corporations, by the sanction and through 
the instrumentality of law, gather immense 
wealth, which is really and justly the people's 
wealth because they produced it. 

In this way that which should be a blessing 
for all is converted into a curse, controlling the 



162 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

market values of commodities by charging ex- 
tortionate rates for freight, of labor by diminish- 
ing the demand for it, and the market prices, 
and thus stagnating industry and reducing the 
value of land, or rather appropriating its value 
by appropriating an undue share of its produc- 
tions. If land will produce a ton of wheat to 
the acre, and freight is charged four dollars a ton 
when two is all it costs, then two dollars an acre 
are unjustly appropriated as often as this is done. 

And what is the remedy? Let the people fur- 
nish their own means for transportation. Let 
the government issue, say 1250,000,000 of 
money, a full legal tender for all debts public 
and private, and with it build a railroad along- 
side of the main trunks of the corporation 
lines. What would be the result ? First, it 
would swell the volume of currency, and thus 
stimulate industry ; second, it would furnish em- 
ployment for at least a hundred thousand men 
and relieve the pressure of the labor market; 
third, it would add $250,000,000 to the national 
wealth ; and fourth, it would bring these 
haughty tyrants to their senses, and show them 
that there is a power before which they must 
yield unconditionally. 

By such means an enterprise compared to 
which this would be a mere by-play was carried 



TRANSPORTATION. 163 

on. More than two millions of soldiers were 
equipped, trained, subsisted, and transported at 
an expense that would have built every mile of 
railroad in the country, and contemplated to be 
built for the next ten years, by the people's 
money. 

While this measure would afford an effectual 
remedy it would do injustice to none. A true 
republic is a co-operative system in which each 
citizen is a stockholder and all are entitled to 
equal benefits ; but as it is, the few gather in 
the wealth and the people who produce it are 
impoverished by law. Corporate power granted 
to individuals is so much of the people's power 
taken from them : not for the people's good, as 
they have been led to believe, but to accumulate 
wealth to override the people and reduce them 
to a subordinate condition. Let that corporation 
extend to all; let the wealth be held and enjoyed 
by those who produce it. As poverty is removed 
the people are lifted up, made more virtuous, in- 
telligent, and happy. They require more than 
food, raiment, and shelter. They require higher 
development, and time and means for it. They 
require all the elevating and purifying influences 
of aesthetic culture — in a word, to be fully de- 
veloped, intellectually, morally, aesthetically, and 
spiritually. In our great centers of civilization 



164 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

all the extremes of life exist. It is not necessary 
to visit London, or Paris, or even Siberia, to wit- 
ness scenes of poverty and distress. In our cities, 
manufacturing districts, and mining localities, are 
to be found selfishness, crime and cruelty, wealth 
and wretchedness, pride and poverty. Neither 
need we go to the isles of the sea for exhibitions 
of savagism, barbaric ignorance, and enslaving 
superstition. The soul is sickened at the con- 
templation of so much misery and degradation 
where there might be such happiness and pros- 
perity, so much good where there is so much 
evil. The great purposes of life are overlooked 
and lost sight of, and the few sacrifice the many 
upon the altar of Mammon. This is accomplished 
through the usurpation of human rights and the 
monopoly of capital. By the magic of intelli- 
gence, powers are evoked that have transformed 
the face of the civilized world — powers that 
speed the production of wealth far beyond the 
dreams of the optimist. One more achievement 
is due and indispensable to the onward march of 
civilization, and that is the relegation of this power 
to the control of the people. 

The first was achieved in the domain of phys- 
ical science, the second must be in the domain 
of mental science ; the one through the agency of 
physical mechanism, the other must come through 



TRANSPORTATION. 165 

the machinery of government. This is the great 
problem of the age — the utilization of all the 
natural means of wealth for all the people of a 
country — this is popular government, equality, 
justice, fraternity. It demands the full recog- 
nition of the humblest and most obscure citizen ; 
it demands justice to all. It requires of each the 
development and culture of all to their highest 
capacity. Then justice would be established, 
tranquillity insured, the common defense pro- 
vided for, the general welfare promoted, and 
the blessings of liberty secured to all, and de- 
scend as the richest and noblest heritage to pos- 
terity. 

Let those who love justice, their fellow-men, 
and their country be reminded of their duties; 
let them aim at and labor to accomplish this 
greatest, highest, noblest destiny of man. For 
this the patriot fathers struggled and bled and 
poured out their most precious treasures. For 
this the down-trodden millions hope and yearn 
and pray. For this the noble heroes of the Old 
World are sacrificing life and treasure. 

The theme of the poet, the dream of the hu- 
manitarian, peace, harmony, prosperity, happi- 
ness — these the full fruition of liberty, justice, 
equality. Justice and freedom for all — The 
New Republic. 



166 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

This government is not a republic. It is a 
government of landlords and tenants, of million- 
aires and paupers, of masters and slaves. It is 
a government of golden splendor, of pomp and 
display, and of miserable obscurity; of purple 
and fine linen, and debasing rags; of crime and 
misery in high places, and misery and crime in 
low places ; with prisons filled and lunatic asy- 
lums overflowing, crime, insanity, and suicide in- 
creasing, drunkenness and debauchery sapping 
the fountain of moral purity, and threatening the 
overthrow of society and domestic institutions : — 
these are the inevitable results of inordinate wealth 
in the hands of the few. 

And the people, with the ballot in their hands, 
suffer such things to be ! 

It may be objected that the people, or at least 
a great portion of them, are comparatively free 
and independent. Grant this. The vital ques- 
tion is not what we are, but whither are we 
tending. Twenty years ago our millionaires 
could be counted not to exceed a score. To-day 
their enumeration would carry us into thousands. 
Since the new system of robbery has been per- 
fected, half a million of people have come into 
the possession and control of more wealth than 
the balance of the entire nation. In other words, 
two per cent of the population hold and control 



TRANSPORTATION. 167 

more wealth than the remaining ninety-eight per 
cent, and the ratio of disproportion is increasing. 
It is the tendency to absolute despotism that gives 
character and importance to this subject. 

This is the result of corporate power. A cor- 
poration is a " body politic," organized for the 
purpose of exercising certain powers not exercis- 
able by individuals or voluntary associations ; a 
legal entity separate from personal entity, exer- 
cising such powers as interfere with and override 
natural rights. It is a petty kingdom, endowed 
with perpetuity, created by law for its own ag- 
grandizement : a usurpation of power for the 
benefit of the few at the expense of the many. 
They increase and multiply all over the land, ab- 
sorbing and controlling all the elements of politi- 
cal power, whereby the well-being of the people 
is involved. These combine, confederate, and 
by utilizing labor-saving machinery in the pro- 
duction and transportation of wealth, raise up a 
corporate empire, ruling with an iron hand the 
toiling, struggling masses of the impoverished 
and enslaved multitude. 

And this is our " republic " ! What mockery ! 

Why do not the people rise in their might and 
hurl with contempt and loathing such despotism 
from its usurped power, and assert their rights as 
freemen ? 



168 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED). — 
COMMUNICATION. 

" Science is a child as yet, 

But her power and scope shall grow, 
And her secrets, in the future, 

Shall diminish toil and woe ; 
Shall increase the bounds of pleasure, 

With an ever-widening ken, 
And the woods and wildernesses 

Make the homes of happy men." 

A little more than forty years ago the first 
line of telegraphic communication was set in 
operation between Baltimore and Washington. 
Since then such lines have formed a network of 
communication throughout the civilized world, 
and connected continents thousands of miles 
apart. 

The means by which these grand results are 
accomplished have been wrought out by the 
busy brain of the scientist, from the great store- 
house of Nature, evoked from her hidden and 
hitherto mysterious recesses. 

The value to mankind of the application of the 
electro-magnet in telegraphy is beyond all com- 
putation. As civilization advances, its necessities 



COMMUNICATION. 169 

increase, so that rapid and extended communica- 
tion becomes indispensable. 

This value belongs to all alike. The force by 
which this needful work is accomplished is given 
by the Creator. He has made it necessary to the 
higher and more advanced condition in the moral, 
intellectual, social, and political world, and given 
to his creatures the capacity to develop and 
appropriate it to their use. 

This God-given means, this inestimable value, 
this imperative necessity in advancing civilization, 
is appropriated by corporate power, and con- 
trolled and used for corporate benefit, not only 
compelling exorbitant rates for its service to the 
many, but controlling intelligence, thereby direct- 
ing national affairs and monopolizing the interests 
of all. 

By it political movements are conducted, con- 
ventions manipulated, nominations dictated, and 
elections carried. By it the markets are regulated 
in the interests of capitalists, and prices deter- 
mined. In short, it controls the political, financial, 
and industrial interests of the country. 

And yet these arrogant usurpers have the 
effrontery to set themselves up as the benefactors 
of the land. They declare that these beneficent 
enterprises could not be carried on without their 
aid ; that all the intelligence and enterprise is 



170 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

confined to their narrow limits ; that the people 
are incapable of conducting great enterprises, and 
should be grateful for their arduous and sqlf- 
sacrificing efforts to extend tjie blessings of — 
monopoly. Moreover, they contend that those 
who take the world are entitled to it. They say 
the race is fair and open to all, and those who 
win are the heroes, and entitled to the spoils 
of their victory. It is by such sophistries as 
these, thrust upon the people by a subsidized 
press, and silenced by a refusal to give room for 
a discussion of the subject, that this illusion is 
kept up. 

Now what are the facts? To begin with, our 
government is based upon the doctrine of vested 
* powers and kingly prerogatives. The race is not 
open and fair. These usurpers are endowed by 
the government with rights and privileges not 
accorded to the people. The aristocratic party 
did this in fastening upon the people a govern- 
ment to all intents and purposes English in its 
character and tendency, and managed to get 
themselves elected so as to set it in operation under 
its newly prescribed form, with the name of a re- 
public, but the nature of an oligarchy. With these 
advantages to start with, they have sought in 
every way to improve them. With a land-tenure 
system that secures millions of acres to single in- 



COMMUNICATION. 171 

dividuals, the domain of the country is rapidly- 
going into few hands. The power of this mo- 
nopoly is incalculable, but in consequence of the 
sparseness of the population, not yet fully de- 
veloped. With a financial system based on the 
" precious metals," and conducted by banking 
corporations, untold millions were accumulated 
by the few. With kingly prerogatives granted 
to the chief executive, a political patronage was 
secured that gave dominance to the spirit of 
party, by which these advantages could be util- 
ized. With a judiciary system by w T hich all their 
claims are supported and protected, and the very 
class of men by whose efforts this system was 
inaugurated and set in operation were installed 
into office ; and with ceaseless vigilance preserved 
that order of things by false pretenses, chicanery, 
political machinery, bribery, and fraud. The 
results are, as we see, the illimitable blessings of 
science and art monopolized and appropriated 
through government functions, by those clothed 
in government authority, usurped and exercised 
through the instrumentality of an ambitious and 
tyrannical aristocracy ! 

Public benefactors ! The following extract, 
over the nom de plume "Asthoreth," sets forth 
in vigorous language the " benefits " claimed by 
these immaculate impostors : 



172 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

" They have refused to pass laws the most whole- 
some and necessary for the public good. 

u They have obstructed the administration of 
justice to such an extent that it is impossible to 
convict a rich man of a crime, and equally impos- 
sible to enforce the rights of a poor man. 

" They have made judges dependent upon their 
will for election to and retention in office. 

" They have created a multitude of new offices, 
and set over us swarms of officers to harass our 
people and eat our substance. 

fci They have endeavored to prevent the popula- 
tion of these States by monopolizing land, labor, and 
money to such an extent as to reduce us to the po- 
sition of starving slaves. 

c ' They keep among us in time of peace standing 
armies of police and military, whose establishment 
is supported by decrees of bribed and intimidated 
legislatures. 

"They have set up a monetary system, based not 
upon the time and service of labor, but upon ficti- 
tious values set by themselves upon unproductive 
elements, and have forced us by inhuman laws to 
receive this medium in payment of our toil. 

" They have created and fostered an immense and 
iniquitous machinery of courts and senates, ethron- 
ing as its triumvirate of tyranical rulers, debt, 
profit, and interest, and have used these agencies to 
crush out the life-blood of our people. 

"They have possessed themselves of the land, 
and as far as possible they control all other elements 
of natural wealth, excluding the laborer from the 
ownership or use thereof. 

" They have seized upon the machinery and 
working tools of our people, and have thus offered 
them no other condition of being in life save that 
of toiling slavery. 



COMMUNICATION. 173 

"They have fostered among us degrading and 
immoral literature, and have provided brutal and 
cruel amusements and maintain and protect every- 
where among us establishments where poisonous, 
brutalizing, and intoxicating beverages are practi- 
cally forced upon our people — all with a purpose of 
degrading our moral, mental, and physical natures 
to the level of the unthinking, degraded, and un- 
complaining slave. 

" They have corrupted the sources of public in- 
telligence ; they have been and are inculcating 
false ideas to our children in the common schools. 

" They have endeavored to disunite us, and set 
brother against brother and child against parent, 
by religious, political, and sectional prejudices. 

" They have imposed upon us prisons, almshouses, 
and insane asylums ; they have compounded crimes, 
and openly flaunted guilt in the faces of the people. 

"They have driven our sons to theft and oar 
daughters to prostitution. 

" They have invaded our rights of free assem- 
blage and free speech by armed force, and have 
dispersed the peaceable meetings of our people. 

" They have, when our people have assembled to 
demand their just rights given by Xature's God, 
fired upon and killed them, both men and women 
and little children." 

The power by which these tyrannies and op- 
pressions are carried on are legal powers, 
and are by the authority of the government, and 
will so continue as long as our present form of 
government continues. As long as the cause 
continues the effects will remain. 

The country has developed and improved 



174 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

somewhat under this monopoly, but not the gov- 
ernment, nor by its provisions. It would be 
impossible in the nature of things for some im- 
provement not to have been made. But under 
a just system of government the results would 
have been infinitely greater, which, in another 
chapter, will be considered. 

At present, telegraphic communication is mo- 
nopolized by one man. He is supreme in the 
exercise of this power. All bow before this 
mighty chief. He speaks through the press : 
the tone of public sentiment is changed. Stocks 
go up or down at his bidding, and trade and 
commerce acknowledge the supremacy of his 
power. 

What an illimitible blessing this would be to 
the people if they could utilize it ! This man 
who holds and controls it, and realizing a net 
profit of six millions annually from it, did not 
originate it, did not build and does not support 
nor operate it, but appropriates it and exercises 
the powers it confers in perverting their true use. 
Thus a power that would infinitely bless the peo- 
ple is made the means to curse them, to deceive 
and mislead by manufacturing intelligence or 
suppressing it. 

And what is the remedy ? It is already an- 
ticipated. Incorporate it into the postal system, 



COMMUNICATION. 1 75 

and conduct it In the interest of the whole peo- 
ple. The real cost of telegraphy is small. Mes- 
sages could be sent at one-fifth the cost now 
charged, and would form the most valuable part 
of the postal service. 

The force is an element of nature, the machin- 
ery is the product of man's skill and labor. Why 
should one man, whose natural rights are no more 
nor better than those of another, and who had no 
hand in the scientific discovery, the mechanical 
contrivances, nor the labor of putting the ma- 
chinery in working order, not only reap the 
entire profits of telegraphy, but use it to op- 
press and subjugate the people ? 



176 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONCLUDED) .— 
EDUCATION. 

"Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom; 
and with all thy getting, get understanding/' — Proverbs. 

Like all other institutions, those of an educa- 
tional character carry with them the traits and 
characteristics stamped upon them by the age in 
which they originated. Until within a compar- 
atively modern period education was regarded as 
an accomplishment. Labor was the inevitable 
lot of the great mass of the people. Under 
monarchical governments this was the necessary 
consequence. Under a more liberal government 
education became more popular ; but still it was 
regarded as an accomplishment. 

As long as the lower classes, under the super- 
vision of overseers, produced the wealth, the 
higher classes had no disposition to apply their 
educational acquirements to such purposes. But 
in a republican government, where all are equal 
in their political status, where all are supposed 
to provide for their own wants, where social re- 
lations require equal social qualifications, where 



EDUCATION. 177 

duties as citizens are required of all, education 
must become universal ; and as its benefits must 
extend to all, so it must be supported by all. 

Of late years this idea has become quite uni- 
versal, and the people are expecting great results 
from our system of free schools. But if we look 
back for the last twenty years, in which our pub- 
lic schools have flourished best, what do we see ? 
A greater change from the simplicity of our 
early republican principles toward aristocratic 
rule has taken place during that time than in all 
the time before. Can we say that this change 
has been in spite of our public schools? This 
would not be true. They have aided in this 
change. All who have been and are conspicuous 
in building up monopoly, in legislating, in the 
strife for political power, in the establishment of 
corporate monopoly — all of these have been and 
are the most highly educated. Their acquire- 
ments have aided them, qualified them for this 
work. 

The tendency of education is away from pro- 
ductive vocations. As a rule, the youth who 
graduates from a grammar or a high school 
feels himself above the condition of a laborer 
and seeks some elegant (?) employment. While 
the uneducated man or woman feels a depend- 
ence on manual labor, the educated man or 
8* 



178 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

woman thinks only of some professional or gen- 
teel vocation. 

Class distinctions are encouraged, labor is de- 
graded, the professions are overrun, and poverty 
increased. This is not all. The evils of our 
present system are both positive and negative : 
positive, because the knowledge acquired is 
mostly impracticable and useless, occupying the 
time the most precious in life, a period that can- 
not be compensated for, an outlay of labor and 
expense that cannot be recalled, for the knowl- 
edge, most of which is forgotten in after years, 
cannot be used, and therefore drops out like dead 
matter ; negative, because practical and useful 
knowledge is neglected and lost, and the mind, 
by improper training, loses its vigor and power 
of thought and reasoning, to say nothing of the 
errors and false notions that come from most of 
the existing institutions of learning. 

Due qualification for citizenship is necessary 
for the existence and maintenance of a true re- 
public. Intelligence and virtue are its essentials 
— intelligence to comprehend the principles upon 
which it is founded, and virtue to appreciate the 
natural rights upon which it is based. Intelli- 
gence to comprehend the relation of cause and 
effect, to realize the condition of mind arising 
from false teaching and prevailing errors, and 



EDUCATION. 179 

the effect of exciting causes which constant ac- 
tivity unconsciously develops, and traits of char- 
acter which greatly modify individuals and even 
nations ; and virtue that inspires that moral sense 
that will not tolerate wrong, such love and ven- 
eration for justice as regards every violation of it 
as a sacrilege. 

Of the former, are the blind acceptance of 
opinions long cherished, without examination or 
reason, or the strong adherence to them in spite 
of reason, and the rejection of new ideas without 
examination or reason. Of the latter, blind ad- 
herence to party, and clanish spirit, pride, intol- 
erance, and arrogance. 

A little reflection will show how difficult it is 
for communities or even individuals to change 
their opinions. Indeed, it is difficult, for just 
when to change opinion is the test of wisdom. 

That we must change our opinions sometime 
is evident from the fact that nothing in nature is 
at a stand-still. We are carried onward by the 
law of progress, and must conform to its change- 
ful conditions. 

It is curious and interesting to study the ad- 
vance of great ideas in the past. Sensuous 
perception for ages limited the intellectnal pow- 
ers of man. If a great genius, like Pythagores, 
penetrated the veil of sensuous perception and 



180 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

proclaimed the deeper phenomena of nature, as 
in the motion of the planets, it was silenced by 
the sensuous perception of the Ptolemaic theory 
for a thousand years. The Apparent veiled the 
Real. Even the clear and forcible reasoning of 
Copernicus availed nothing. The Real disclosed 
by the laws of Galileo banished the Apparent, and 
gave the world a deeper insight into the great 
arcana of nature. The deeper comprehension of 
Columbus in penetrating the veil of the Appar- 
ent went for naught ; only visions of possible 
wealth and dominion, coupled with woman's in- 
herent faith and trust in man, triumpeed over 
sensuous perception. 

It is humiliating and surprising when we look 
back and discover how long we have been beat- 
ing against a grand idea without seeing it. So 
simple a thing as the art of printing was on the 
point of being discovered for a thousand years. 
The invention of the telescope was a mere acci- 
dent; and the phenomena that led to the dis- 
covery of steam in its application as a motive 
power were familiar for thousands of years. 
Professor Morse was ridiculed when he applied 
to Congress for a small appropriation to enable 
him to put in operation his simple plan of teleg- 
raphy. 

And we are now, undoubtedly looking at ideas 



EDUCATION. 181 

as grand as any yet utilized without seeing them. 
Heat as a motor, electricity as a subtile agent in 
disturbing static conditions, chemical action in 
composing and disolving forms of matter — these 
phenomena have been familiar to man, coeval 
with his very existence, yet how recent it is that 
he has made them factors in working out the 
great problems of life ! 

Here is a lesson in this history of the past, 
and it is time we should have learned it ; namely, 
other ideas as productive of human welfare, 
though in other fields of research, are waiting the 
magic touch of human genius to invoke their 
Dowers for human weal, thus complementing the 
domain of research, and rounding out and devel- 
oping the many-sided phases of human activities. 

It is a well-known fact that physical science 
has far outstripped the more intricate departments 
of mental science. Mechanics in its application 
to machinery, enginery, military operations, man- 
ufactories, and chemical appliances are far in ad- 
vance of political, social, and ethical sciences ; and 
it is in these fields of research that attention is 
being directed. In political science, the advance 
has been slow, labored, and uncertain. 

The earlier writers, misled by sensuous per- 
ception, looking only on the surface of things, 
taking effects for causes, laid down their theories ; 



182 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and subsequent writers have accepted them with- 
out due examination, and sometimes without even 
question. 

Thus we see how difficult it is to uproot old 
ideas and long-established opinions. This is the 
work of education, and yet education has been 
and is now a prominent factor in perpetuating 
the existing condition of things. 

The intelligence to comprehend the condition 
of the present, and a realization of the difficulty 
in removing the errors of past and present teach- 
ings, are essential requisites. This condition and 
these traits being understood, the real work of 
educational reform will then commence. The 
laws of mental action, in development and cul- 
ture, which have unconsciously established the 
existing conditions, have not been fully recog- 
nized and understood. 

The fundamental law by which all educational 
processes are carried on may be briefly stated — 
exercise is the law of development. Any cause 
that excites the activity of a power or faculty 
invigorates, itensifies, and develops that power or 
faculty within the limits of its nutrition. The 
truth of this proposition is more tersely expressed 
in the adage, u Practice makes perfect." This 
law determines all character and the formation 
of all character. The child born of German 



EDUCATION. 183 

parents and reared in an American home, sur- 
rounded by American influences, loses its German 
characteristics and becomes Americanized, and 
in one or two generations a new cast of character 
takes the place of the old one. In improving 
domestic animals the same law prevails ; certain 
qualities of the horse or the dog most desirable 
to be developed are carefully and judiciously 
exercised. So permanently do these traits be- 
come fixed that they are transmitted by inheri- 
tance. The operation of this law is seen even in 
the vegetable kingdom. Thus fruits, cereals, and 
flowers are cultivated to a high degree of per- 
fection. 

In the higher and more complicated structures 
this law operates with most effect ; and in the 
human type it displays its greatest powers. It is 
by this law that national characteristics are pro- 
duced and preserved. Even new characteristics 
might be evoked from the plastic mind if a new 
influence were to act persistently and for a suffi- 
cient length of time. Sailors can discern and 
distinguish vessels that a landsman cannot see ; 
the accountant runs up his columns and sets 
down his results with astonishing rapidity and 
ease ; the pianist sweeps the chords of his instru- 
ment, evoking a flood of harmony, while the voice 
pours forth a melody in perfect unison with it. 



184 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

This is the great underlying law of all activities 
— the developing power. 

We are now prepared to make the application 
of this law in the formation of our national char- 
acter. The inordinate love of money made val- 
uable by the device of law and the necessities of 
exchange above all commodities, and by its scar- 
city that value increased — this love so excited and 
constantly acting on the mind has developed ava- 
rice as the national characteristic. Let us for a 
moment contemplate the value of money over and 
above all transferable things, so made by law. 
The value of a fortune can be expressed on a bit 
of paper and carried in the vest pocket. It will 
command anything in the market at any time or 
place within the jurisdiction of the government 
creating it. It commands time, opportunity, ease, 
pleasure ; its possessor may command power, 
dominion, honor, and position. It is the magic 
wand that transforms the slave into the master, 
the pauper into the millionaire ; it converts hov- 
els into palaces and serfs into lords. It wipes out 
the stain of dishonor and shields the criminal 
from justice. 

Nothing else can vie with it, nothing can com- 
pare with it, nothing so good in the estimation of 
its votaries — and who are not its votaries ? This 
love, excited by such vast, varied, and mighty 



EDUCATION. 185 

powers, has burned with incessant intensity in 
the hearts of the people for ages. Is it any 
wonder, then, that it is developed into uncon- 
trollable avarice ? There is no passion or am- 
bition it cannot satisfy, no elevation that its 
possessor cannot reach — passion that degrades 
and brutalizes, ambition that transforms the man 
into the demon. " The love of money," said Paul, 
u is the root of all evil." Avarice is a moral 
poison, a passion that overrides and crushes out 
the finer sensibilities and nobler emotions of the 
soul. It is the perversion of a faculty necessary 
in the economy of life as a means and subject to 
control, but a cruel tyrant, a relentless, grasping, 
devouring monster, when it gains the mastery. 

Thus the nation has been educated. The 
phrase " almighty dollar " is as familiar as a 
household word. Thus wealth has become an 
object of worship. Thus every man's hand is 
turned against his fellow in its tireless pursuit. 

The great struggle of life is for money. The 
high and the low, the rich and the poor, long for 
it, yearn for it, pray for it, fight for it, toil for it, 
sacrifice love, virtue, honor, health, happiness, 
and life for it. It has made truthful in the esti- 
mation of men the parody of the wise man's say- 
ing, " Money is the principal thing, therefore get 
money ; and with all thy getting, get money." 
Get it honestly if you can, but — get it. 



186 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

The spirit of avarice rules the nation. It is 
the great educator of the people, and well has it 
done its work. Inspired by it, fraud, theft, 
robbery, and murder reign supreme, and in 
the form of corporate power prey upon the peo- 
ple's wealth and trample upon their liberties. 
Usurping their rights, it has arrayed its forces 
and organized its schemes in national banks, in 
stocks and rings, in transportation corporations, 
in telegraph and insurance companies, manufac- 
turing establishments, mining enterprises, market 
and commercial exchanges, and every business 
and industry in which capital can rob and en- 
slave labor. It has poisoned the " milk of human 
kindness" and embittered the cup of joy; the 
purest bosom has felt its glow, and the softest 
cheek its feverish breath. 

It enters every department of life ; all feel its 
withering touch. It has desolated the homes of 
millions, and driven their inmates into the streets, 
into the poor-house, into the Potter's Field. The 
toilers in the workshop, in the field, on land and 
sea, and in the bowels of the earth are made to 
bow their heads at its command. Tramps plod 
their way in hunger and rags, and paupers take 
their meager sustenance from the tribute of their 
less unfortunate fellow-creatures. 

To the wealthy, this tyrant is scarcely more 



EDUCATION. 187 

lenient. Victors and victims alike fall a prey to 
his insatiate greed ; the one class, moral paupers, 
stripped of their manhood, honor, love, virtue, 
benevolence ; all humanly qualities gone, greed 
hardens their hearts and steels them against the 
finer and nobler emotions of the soul, thus fitting 
them for the doom pronounced upon them by the 
gentle Nazarene : " It is easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man 
to enter the kingdom of heaven." 

The other class are the victims of greed, poverty 
and wretchedness, suffering and sorrow, toil and 
weariness, ignorance and obscurity. Thus, all 
the fruits of avarice are evil, and the people of 
all classes suffer from it. 

The true teacher has not yet come. We long 
and pray for his advent. When he comes, we 
will look back with astonishment at the ignorance 
and superstition that prevailed, and the stolid in- 
difference of the people at the cause of so much 
misery and selfishness, and congratulate ourselves 
that they have disappeared in the sunshine of an 
enlightened age. 

He will come in the garb of science — political 
science. He will unfold the true principles of 
money. He will divest it of its overmastering 
charm. He will make it the servant of industry, 
" the tool of trade." He will dethrone it, and 



188 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

teach its true use. He will teach and enforce the 
law of justice ; from it will come equality; from 
equality, liberty ; from liberty, fraternity ; from 
fraternity, peace, harmony, prosperity. The true 
aims of life will be recognized, and education will 
develop, culture, and harmonize the individual to 
his full capacity. Such individuals will consti- 
tute the aggregate ; and as the units are so will 
the a2f2Teo;ate be. 

Avarice and his brazen imp, Monopoly, will 
disappear, and the forces that are now employed 
in impoverishing and enslaving the people will 
serve to establish their equality and secure their 
liberty. 

Not comprehending the cause of the greed and 
selfishness of man, his wickedness and crimes, it 
was ascribed to the disobedience of our first pa- 
rents ; but mankind are just as good as they can 
be under the circumstances. Let the developing 
influences and refining processes of education call 
out the higher and better elements of our nature ; 
then we would have vastly better conditions. 

And this is the mission of true education. 
Mere instruction forms but a small part of it ; 
that will come with development and culture. 
Looking to the qualification for citizenship, to a 
comprehension of the principles of political sci- 
ence and their relation to human rights, to the 



EDUCATION. 189 

structure of government, its purposes and objects, 
its legislative and executive powers, qualification 
for the elective franchise and the proper mode of 
its exercise, the distribution of its wealth and en- 
joyment of the natural means of wealth ; in the 
regulation of all its industries, public and private, 
in transportation and travel, in lines of communi- 
cation for intelligence, in trade and commerce, in 
providing for its revenue, in all its industries ; in 
its sanitary regulations, in the care and protection 
of its moral interests, in its protection against 
crime and the treatment of its criminals, in its 
social requirements, in its educational depart- 
ment — scientific, philosophical, literary, and aes- 
thetic — and other things pertaining to a people's 
government, it will make adequate provisions. 
In other words, it will secure the full, true, many- 
sided phases of human character, fully rounded 
out and completed 

Education means unfoldment, growth, develop- 
ment, culture, the power of appreciation, judg- 
ment, original thought, and self-reliant action. 
It means the use of all the appliances that con- 
tribute to the fullest unfoldment of all the pow- 
ers and faculties of the human being ; not only 
to use and enjoy, but to control and direct. To 
the vigor of the mind ; to the harmony of the 
social relations ; to the happiness of domestic 



190 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

life ; to the production and distribution of wealth ; 
to the culture of taste and refinement by the ex- 
alting and ennobling influences of the fine arts, 
music, painting, sculpture ; — this is the mission, 
these the true aims and purposes, of education. 

But long-established customs and settled opin- 
ions, the wrong and pernicious influences that 
predominate and result in the undue develop- 
ment of the selfish propensities, the evils and 
defects arising from false notions and methods of 
education, render it extremely difficult to insti- 
tute measures that will result in the greatest 
good to the greatest number. And this is the 
highest interest of the people, and to secure 
these results their imperative duty. 

Experience has shown that " mankind are 
more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable 
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms 
to which they are accustomed." This goes to 
show how difficult it is to effect reforms. 

When we comprehend the causes that have 
brought into existence the present conditions, 
and not till then, will we be ready not only to re- 
move them, but we will likewi.se have the ability 
to do it. Correct thought must precede correct 
action. Opinion rules the actions of men. 

When the Jersey City freight-handlers struck 
for three cents an hour additional, they gave 



EDUCATION. 191 

away the whole question involved in the labor 
problem, and resolved it into the one of, What 
shall the wages be ? They admitted the right 
to hold them in the bonds of wage-service, and 
while that opinion prevails there is no hope of 
emancipation from the greed of capital. So long- 
as men are satisfied to surrender their natural 
rights for a mere pittance and their dignity as 
men, thus conceding the right of capital to con- 
trol labor, barter their liberties, and sacrifice 
their manhood for a price, we may be sure of a 
continuation of slavery without mitigation or 
relief. 

So long as the cultivators of the soil only 
demand less rents as a measure of reform, they 
ignore the very question involved in the reform, 
and may be sure of the continuance of the rela- 
tion of landlords and tenants, lords and serfs. 
So long as the wealth-producer believes that 
money possesses intrinsic value based on its con- 
vertibility into gold and silver, so long will he 
be cursed and impoverished by the unjust dis- 
tribution of wealth, and be willing to suffer 
his hard earnings to be accumulated by money- 
lenders in the shape of interest. So long as me- 
chanics and tradesmen believe that banking in- 
stitutions are just and necessary, so long will they 
continue to be robbed by the control of prices, by 



192 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

usury, and the golden harvests by operating fic- 
titious capital. So long as the people believe 
that corporations have the right to control pub- 
lic highways, and claim in them the rights 
of absolute ownership and the right to con- 
solidate their interests to monopolize trans- 
portation, and thus control labor and market 
prices, so long will these corporations continue 
their brigandage upon the toiling millions. So 
long as the people have full confidence in our 
educational institutions, and regard them as the 
" palladium of our liberties," there will be no 
disposition to change them — for they contribute 
largely to the perpetuation of existing conditions. 

Without a radical change in public sentiment ; 
without a clear conviction that our system of 
government is wrong — no matter what the opin- 
ion is as to the mode of administering the existing 
one ; until the conviction is clear and positive 
that vested powers have usurped natural rights, 
whereby laws are enacted in favor of the few to 
rob the many, and an executive power instituted 
by which these laws are enforced — there is no 
hope for a remedy. 

When courts fail to administer justice; when 
they become the willing tools of designing men 
and powerful corporations, by which the strong 
are supported and the weak without protection ; 



EDUCATION. 193 

when these are manipulated wholly by a special 
and exclusive class requiring special training, and 
the validity of their authority goes unquestioned 
by the people, who bow with submission to that 
authority — what hope is there in reform in the 
administration of justice, or the substitution of a 
better mode ? 

It can never be. A revolution must come ; 
and it will come. Shall it come in blood, or in 
peace ? By the bayonet, or the ballot ? By pas- 
sion, or reason ? By the desolation of war, or the 
guidance of wisdom ? We hope and toil and pray 
for the latter. Let us transform this oligarchy of 
wealth, this usurpation of power, this monopoly 
of capital, this universal greed of avarice, by 
which millions upon millions are made to bow 
their backs for the burdens of despotism, and 
bend the knee in servile submission to a proud 
and haughty aristocracy, into a New Republic, 
wherein justice will hold rule and the law of 
righteousness will prevail, equality and liberty 
founded on the natural, inalienable rights of man 
will bless this oppressed and greed-cursed people. 
How little they appreciate this transformation ! 
Accustomed to wrongs and usurpations, to false 
theories and dictation, and having never tasted 
the sweets of liberty, harmony, competence, and 
the inestimable blessings of that full and exalted 
9 



194 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

development and culture in all the attributes of 
their being to their full capacity, they seem to 
expect little more than they realize. 

It is difficult to think aright ; it is more diffi- 
cult to act aright when thought is rightly directed 
and the ideal formed ; but by the exercise of will, 
by surrounding one's self with good influences 
and repelling bad ones, and persisting in this, 
that ideal character can be realized. 

When this is done, education will have done its 
work. All the powers and faculties of the human 
being will be developed and cultivated to the 
highest capacity, and the " pursuit of happiness " 
will be crowned in full fruition. 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 195 



CHAPTER XV. 

LABOR AND CAPITAL. 

. " See yonder poor, o'erlabored wight, 

So abject, mean, and vile, 
Who begs a brother of the earth 

To give him leave to toil. 
Then see his lordly fellow-worm 

The poor petition spurn, 
Unmindful though a weeping wife 

And helpless offspring mourn." 

With the vast amount of speculation and dis- 
cussion in regard to the relation of labor and 
capital, the problem seems as far from solution 
as ever. To discuss this important question, it 
will be necessary to take up and examine each 
factor involved, and consider all of them in their 
logical order. 

The ultimate object of all labor is the produc- 
tion of values ; but without the necessary condi- 
tions and appliances for its embodiment and 
utilization it is of no avail. Labor perishes the 
instant it is performed, and without embodying 
its results it is lost forever. One might labor all 
day in lifting at a heavy weight, with no result 
save that of physical exhaustion. 

Mere human exertion, then, without embodi- 



196 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 

ment in valuable results, is a waste of life and of 
its purposes, the aim of the laborer. Its impor- 
tance may be better estimated when we consider 
that, with the exception of air and water, there is 
no necessary or luxury of life that is not the pro- 
duction of labor or made valuable by it. Labor, 
then, in the sense here considered, is human ex- 
ertion in the production of values. 

There are three essential factors in such pro- 
duction ; namely, land, labor, and capital. The 
ultimate of human exertion is value. Utility is 
the measure of value. All that can be appropri- 
ated to the use of life is value. All value is in 
some way consumed, for its use depends on con- 
sumption. 

Consumption, then, is the basis of all values, 
because all values are in some way consumed. 
Life is one continued series of production and 
consumption, of composition and decay, of crea- 
tion and destruction ; even death itself is the es- 
sential and indispensable condition of life. 

To produce those forms of matter necessary 
for consumption is the first object of all labor. 
The inexhaustible resources of potential wealth, 
that is, natural elements wrought into values, and 
the intelligence, skill, and industry of man, are all 
utilized that he may live ; and to live is to realize 
all the possibilities of life by developing, cultivat- 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 197 

ing, and harmonizing all the attributes of man, 
thus lifting him up and out from his low estate 
of ignorance and selfishness, and fitting him for 
his high and noble destiny. 

Consumption is the demand, and human exer- 
tion, coupled with nature's resources, is the sup- 
ply. Here we have the basis of political economy. 
As population increases, the demand for its ne- 
cessities are balanced by the increasing intelli- 
gence and inventive resources in creating supply. 
But there is an essential factor in supply that 
will not respond to man's intelligence and invent- 
ive genius nor his creative power. 

That factor is land. When population increases 
and accumulates, and demand keeps pace with it, 
this essential factor remains fixed. Its control 
in the production of values gives to the owners 
thereof control of life ; and as every one has the 
right to control his own life, he has a right to the 
means of control. 

As population increases, the value of land in- 
creases, for the plain reason that increase of pop- 
ulation carries with it increased demand ; and as 
demand rises above supply, the primary source of 
supply (land), being fixed in quantity, must rise 
in value. Primarily and essentially, land has no 
value ; without population to consume its prod- 
ucts there would be no value. Were there but 



198 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

one man on the earth, the value of all the land 
on it would be measured by the value of his life ; 
with two, it would be doubled ; and so on. 

Land has no market value so long as all who 
wish to occupy it have full access to it. But as 
population begins to press, and the quantity is 
proportionally lessened to the population, its 
market value begins to rise, and continues to as 
long as population continues to increase. We 
say " market value," because, so long as govern- 
ment is founded on the individual rights of 
property, land will be included in the category 
of such rights, with the sole restriction of limi- 
tation. While the right to values produced is 
commensurate with the ability of the individual 
to produce them, the right to land is commensu- 
rate with the right to life itself, since it is given 
by the Creator and is not a product of labor. 

This rise in the value of land is measured by 
the value it yields — value increased by the in- 
creased demand for it — and should belong to the 
owner of the land, if it is owned only by those 
who cultivate it. This would be proper, for as 
no man has a right to land that he cannot cul- 
tivate, it belongs to those who can. 

Absolute property in land secures the value of 
it to the owner who is only a unit in the increase 
of such value, and is therefore not entitled to 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 199 

more than his proportion of such value. In the 
monopoly of land, one of its great evils consist 
in the holder of large tracts taking the benefits 
of the increase of value by increase of popula- 
tion — a value for which no exchange is given. 

The consideration now is the control and 
monopoly of this essential factor, land, in the 
solution of the labor problem. Since it is co- 
essential with the factor, labor, it must hold an 
intimite and important relation to it ; and since 
land is the primary source of values essential to 
life, the other factors are dependent on it. 

The monopolist can demand a share of the 
products of the soil in proportion to the extent 
of his monopoly. In proportion to that demand, 
labor's share is diminished and labor cheapened. 
This effect is not limited to agriculture, but ex- 
tends to all the departments of industry. The 
poverty of the laboring classes in Europe is 
owing mainly to this cause ; for, as has been 
stated, increasing the price of land and products, 
labor's share of such increase would rise as in- 
crease in land (released from monopoly) rises, if 
rents were not exacted, for the value of such 
rents would go to labor. The principal reason 
why labor is not reduced to the European stand- 
ard is owing to the large area of land in propor- 
tion to the population. 



200 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

The pressure is not yet strongly felt; our 
population is yet sparse, and our public domain 
is wide, and the ability to appropriate additional 
domain not yet exhausted, but the principle and 
conditions are all here, only waiting the inevita- 
ble results of those principles and the logic of 
those conditions to develop the curse of landlord- 
ism to its European standard on American soil. 

"In charging the Dublin jury in the Land League 
cases, Mr. Justice Fitzgerald told them that the 
land laws of Ireland were more favorable to ten- 
ant than those of Great Britain, Belgium, or the 
United States. As a matter of fact, Justice Fitz- 
gerald was right." — Henry George. 

We even now feel the oppression of landlord- 
ism, even with a population comparatively 
sparse ; but the appropriation of land in large 
tracts to single individuals is rapidly going on, 
and the laborer will be reduced to the standard 
of European peasantry as an inevitable result. 

In the further examination of this subject, it 
will be well to define the terms usually employed 
in the discussion of the labor question. 

Land includes soil, water, all minerals and 
metals, timber, air, and sunlight. 

Labor is human exertion in the production of 
values. 

Capital is that portion of wealth employed in 
the production of values. 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 201 

Rent is the increase of value in land arising 
from and measured by the increased demand for 
its productions by increasing population. 

Wage is the compensation for labor in the 
production of values. 

Profit is compensation for the consumption of 
wealth in the production of values. 

Wealth is a general term, and includes all 
values. 

The true formula of the labor problem in agri- 
cultural industry may be stated thus : 

(1.) Land -f (labor -f- capital) = values, the 
means of life under the ownership and control of 
one individual. 

In manufactures the formula is : 

(2.) Kaw material (land products) -\- (labor 
+ capital) = values, which may be consumed or 
exchanged. 

In mining industries the formula is : 

(3.) Mines (portions of land) + (labor -f- 
capital) = values, to be consumed or exchanged. 

In transportation, travel, and communication : 

(4.) Road-beds, streams, and coasts (portions 
of land) + (labor -}- capital) = increased values. 

Thus it will be seen that labor and capital are 

inseparable companions in the production of 

values, and land in some form is its basis. In 

all private enterprises and for individual gain, 

9* 



202 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

labor and capital must be furnished by the same 
person ; that is, every man must operate his own 
capital. In all enterprises of a public character, 
they are to be carried on by corporations, in 
which the people are stockholders and equal re- 
cipients of the dividends. In transportation, travel, 
and lines of communication, postal service, com- 
merce, education, and means for defense, the peo- 
ple in their governmental capacity should operate 
and control them. In private enterprises, vol- 
untary associations of capital may be permitted, 
wherein the laborers are co-owners with the cap- 
italists and recipients of the dividends regulated 
on a just basis. 

The true relation of capital and labor, where 
wealth is produced directly from the soil, is the 
occupancy and cultivation of the land only by the 
owners of it. This is the solution of the labor 
problem in the department of agricultural indus- 
try. As long as land is held in large quantities, 
and the holding protected by law, and this ac- 
cepted as legitimate, the problem will remain un- 
solved — the premise being wrong, the conclusion, 
however logical, must be wrong. 

In other departments of industry, the principle 
is that all who participate in the production of 
values shall be recipients of its dividends ; thus, a 
common interest is established which will harmon- 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 203 

ize capital and labor, and annihilate all antago- 
nisms that now threaten such serious results. 

The great difficulty is in overcoming the ra- 
pacity and greed of capitalists, and arousing the 
spirit and enterprise of the wage-laborer. 

According to the national census, the propor- 
tion of people engaged in agriculture outnumbers 
all others engaged in industrial pursuits. Noth- 
ing remains but for them to secure the benefits of 
equal protection, which they would gladly extend 
to their fellow-laborers in other departments of 
industry. In accordance with provisions already 
existing, the power is in their hands. The bur- 
dens of transportation, the robbery of market ex- 
changes, the oppressions of landlords, the tyranny 
of courts, and exorbitant taxes bear them down, 
and crush out the spirit of independence. Care- 
worn and weary, harassed with debt and uncer- 
tainty, they have neither time nor opportunity 
for the enjoyment of social and intellectual pleas- 
ures. The farmer, who should be the most inde- 
pendent, with the exception of wage-servers and 
tramps, is the most dependent ; the primary pro- 
ducer of the chief values for consumption, they 
are spirited out of his hands, and he is often left 
in want. Let him once understand his power 
and appreciate the value of his rights, they would 
soon be his to enjoy. His is the most important 



204 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and independent vocation ; let him take the lead ; 
but this importance and independence exist only in 
song and story, while he, following in the lead of 
some wily, ambitious demagogue, under the stim- 
ulus of the party lash, becomes the willing dupe 
and supporter of his schemes for personal ad- 
vancement. 

In regard to wage-earners, who are at the 
mercy of their employers with the present antag- 
onism between capital and labor, the case is still 
worse. Wage-service is slavery ; not such as ex- 
isted in the Southern States, where the interest 
of the master was in the welfare of his slave, and 
thus prompted by selfishness to keep him in good 
condition ; but such slavery as cupidity and av- 
arice dictate : when one is disabled or worn down 
with toil, he is turned out for another to take his 
place. He is so dependent that he cannot afford 
to displease his master, however much he may 
feel inclined to do so. His liberty and manhood 
have disappeared ; the semblance of his liberty 
consists in the right -to starve, and of his man- 
hood in the disgrace attached to "strikes" and 
riots. He will concede all this, and still go on 
in his servitude. This condition of an " Ameri- 
can freeman," with the elective franchise in his 
hand, is terrible to contemplate : in a land where 
all are "equal," he in poverty and rags, his em- 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 205 

ployer in " purple and fine linen " ; the one going 
to his rented hovel, the other to his gilded palace. 

Labor is the expenditure of life itself, and he 
who sells it for a mere pittance is to all intents 
and purposes a slave, and will continue so as long 
as he appeals for higher wages or better condi- 
tions while his master holds the power. 

Mr. Julian, on the floor of Congress, said : 

" Nothing is more remarkable than the growing 
tendency of legislation in this country to lend itself 
to the service of capital of great corporations, of 
monopolies of every sort, while too often turning 
an unfriendly eye upon the people, and especially 
upon the laboring poor. The cause of this may 
fairly be traced to the evil genius of the times, 
which makes the greed for sudden wealth a sort of 
devouring passion, and thus naturally seizes upon 
the machinery of government in the accomplish- 
ment of its purposes. This bad spirit, which has 
been steadily marching toward its alarming ascen- 
dency since the outbreak of the late civil war, 
writes itself down upon every phase of societv and 
life. 

"It breeds political corruption in the most gi- 
gantic and frightful forms. It whets the appetite 
for public plunder, and through the aggregation of 
capital in the hands of the cunning and unscrupu- 
lous, it menaces the equal rights of the people and 
the well-being of society. So malign a spirit must 
be confronted. It is no more a question of party 
politics, for it threatens the life of all parties, and 
the perpetuity of the government itself. It not 
only invokes the saving offices of the preacher and 



206 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

the moralist, but it summons to new duties and in- 
creased vigilance every man who really concerns 
himself for the welfare of his country. 

" I believe the evil to which I refer finds some 
explanation in the false teachings of political econ- 
omy. According to many of the leading writers 
on this science, its fundamental idea is the creation 
and increase of productive wealth. If farming on 
a great scale, carried on with skill and appliances 
which concentrated capital alone can command and 
methodize, will yield greater results than the tillage 
of the soil in small homesteads and by ruder meth- 
ods, then the system of large farming must be pre- 
ferred, though it deprives multitudes of the poor of 
all opportunity to acquire homes and independence, 
and entails the appalling evils of landlordism, and 
the whole brood of mischiefs with which the mo- 
nopoly of the soil has scourged the people in every 
age. 

" So if manufacturing on a grand scale, with the 
perfected machinery and cheap labor which capital 
can wield, turn out a larger product and at lower 
prices than numerous small industries, then such 
manufactories must be fostered, though the policy 
pauperizes and brutalizes thousands of human be- 
ings who take rank as c operatives,' and whose exist- 
ence is made a curse rather than a blessing. I 
protest against such principles as both false and 
unjust. ' The increase of wealth/ says Sismondi, 
' is not the end of political economy, but its instru- 
ment in procuring the happiness of all. It regards 
chiefly the producer, and strives for the welfare of 
the people through a just distribution. It is not 
the object of nations to produce the greatest quan- 
tity of work at the cheapest rate.' 

" In the light of these broad and humane princi- 



LABOR AXD CAPITAL. 207 

pies I interpret the duty of the government. Its 
mission within the sphere of its just powers is to 
protect labor, the source of all wealth ; and to seek 
constantly the well-being of the millions who toil. 
Capital can take care of itself. Always sagacious, 
sleepless, and aggressive, it holds all the advantages 
in its battle with labor. The balance of power falls 
so naturally in its hands that labor has no oppor- 
tunity to make a just bargain. The labor market, 
it has been well observed, differs from any other. 
The seller of every other commodity has the option 
to sell or not ; but the commodity the workingman 
brings is life. He must sell it or die. Labor, there- 
fore, should not be regarded as merchandise to be 
bought and sold, and governed by the law of supply 
and demand, but as capital, and its human needs 
should always be considered. l The rusrged face of 
society,' says a celebrated writer, ' checkered with 
the extremes of affluence and want, proves that 
some extraordinary violence has been committed 
upon it, and calls on justice for redress. The great 
mass of the pour in all countries have become a 
hereditary race, and it is next to impossible for them 
to get out of the state of themselves. It is also to 
be observed that this mass increases in all countries 
that are called civilized. The proposition that the 
rich are becoming richer and the poor becoming 
poorer has been vehemently denied, but I cannot 
doubt its truth for a moment. I want no statistics 
to settle it, since the unnatural domination of cap- 
ital over labor, which instead of being repressed by 
legislation is systematically aided by it, clears the 
question of all doubt. Our vitiated currency largely 
increases the cost of necessaries of life, and is thus a 
heavy tax upon the poor. Our system of national 
banking is an organized monopoly in the interests 



208 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

of capitalists, is demanded by no public necessity, 
and renders no substantial service in return for the 
burdens it imposes on the people 

"The population of our great cities and towns, 
instead of re-enforcing the rural districts, is unduly 
increasing ; and so is the number of buildings de- 
voted to banking, brokerage, insurance, and kindred 
projects. Not production, but traffic^ is the order 
of the day. The enhanced cost of the instruments 
requisite for the prosecution of industrial pursuits, 
and the higher price of fuel, food, and clothing, 
naturally hinder the accumulation of capital suffi- 
cient to enable the man of small means to establish 
himself as an independent producer. This necessity 
subordinates labor more and more to capital, and 
concentrates the business of manufacturing and ex- 
changing into large establishments, while working 
the destruction of smaller ones. Of course, the ten- 
dency of all this is to render the many dependent 
on the few for the means of their livelihood, rather 
than upon themselves, and to divide society into 
two classes: the capitalists, who own everything; 
and hands, who own nothing, but depend entirely 
on the capital class. 

" That the policy of the government to a great 
extent evokes and aggravates these evils can 
scarcely bo questioned ; and that the policy results 
from the ugly fact that the laboring and producing 
classes are unrepresented in the government, save 
by the non-producers and traffickers, is equally clear. 
It illustrates the evils of class legislation, and calls 
on the people to apply the remedy." 

"The unproductives,"says Commissioner Wells, 
" being the chief makers of the laws and institution^, 
for the protection of labor and ingenuity, the in* 
crease of production, and the exchange and trans* 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 209 

fer of property, they shape all their devices so 
cunningly and work them so cleverly, that they, 
the non-producers, continue to grow rich faster 
than the producers. Whoever at this day watches 
the subject and course of legislation, and appreciates 
the spirit of the laws, cannot fail to perceive how 
more and more the idea of the transfer of the sur- 
plus products of society, and the creation of facilities 
for it, available to the cunning and the quick as 
against the dull and the slow, has come to pervade 
the whole fabric of that which we call government; 
and how large a number of the most progressive 
minds in the nation have been led to accept as a 
fundamental truth in political doctrine that the 
best way to take care of the many is to commence 
by taking care of the few ; that all that which is 
necessary to secure the well-being of the workman 
is to provide a satisfactory profit for his employer." 

Labor and capital are inseparable and must 
harmonize. Labor must own and control capi- 
tal. These are the essential conditions of the 
problem which render its solution simple and 
easy. There can be no other. If capital con- 
trols labor, the laborer is the victim of avarice 
and tyranny. Eight-hour agitations, trades- 
unions, and other associations for the protection 
of labor against capital are ineffectual as a rem- 
edy, but useful as educators. Strikes imply the 
right of capital to control labor, and thus surren- 
der the whole question. 

All of these means can prove but palliatives 
at best. We might as well attempt to solve the 



210 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

problem of eclipses on the Ptolemaic theory of 
astronomy. 

" The labor question is indeed the natural succes- 
sor and logical sequence of the slavery question. 
It is, in fact, the same question in another form, 
since the practical ownership of labor by capital 
necessarily involves the ownership of the laborer 
himself." 

We speak of labor and capital in the same cat- 
egory. This is not true. Labor is guided by 
intelligence, and this becomes an element in it. 
It is human exertion, and human exertion is the 
expenditure of life itself. It is inspired by love ; 
it is prompted by affection. It is life, energy, 
clothed with moral power, and in it are involved 
the welfare and destiny of the human race. 

The control of labor by capital means the 
reign of avarice. It is simply brigandage, rob- 
bery, despotism. In the hands of greedy, am- 
bitions, and unscrupulous men — and they are the 
ones who seek it — its power consists in control- 
ling the means of life, and thus controlling life 
itself. The first great necessity of life is a bare 
subsistence. When this alone exists, and is de- 
pendent on the will and interest of another, the 
relation is that of master and slave. And such 
is the condition of wage-labor ; and by the agen- 
cies now at work the wealth-producer is rapidly 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 211 

reaching the same condition. The subserviency 
of legislation to corporate rule, the immense 
power vested in the executive by which party 
spirit is excited and fostered, the servility of the 
courts and their authority in interpreting law, 
the exercise of sovereign functions of the govern- 
ment by a confederation of corporations prompted 
by avarice and lust of dominion, have already 
cast the die ; and without a radical reconstruction 
of government, the inevitable doom of labor is 
Slavery. 

Since the sole purpose of labor is the produc- 
tion of wealth, and labor-saving machinery by its 
advantages in utilizing mechanical forces is held 
in the hands of capitalists, manual labor is com- 
pelled to compete with it ; and this power to 
perform more work and much cheaper is utilized 
by the capitalists to further oppress labor. Man- 
ual labor costs more than machine labor. To 
produce a manual laborer, twenty years of time 
and a vast amount of values are consumed. His 
capacity is comparatively limited, and his sub- 
sistence absorbs a large proportion of his produc- 
tion. To produce a machine laborer, little time 
is required, and the cost is comparatively small; 
while the productive power is much greater than 
that of the manual laborer. With these advan- 
tages, capitalists build up vast manufactories in 



212 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

which most of the labor is performed by machin- 
ery, and then invoke the aid of government in 
chartering corporations, clothing them with legal 
powers not permitted to individuals or simple 
partnerships, and protecting the manufacturing 
industries of the country. 

The Southern slave-owner never became a mil- 
lionaire, because the cost of labor in the slave 
was so great. While a thousand dollars in 
slave capital would bring but a meager net profit, 
the same amount in labor-saving machinery 
would be as much greater as its power to pro- 
duce is greater and the cost of running it is less ; 
thus, the Eastern capitalist becomes a millionaire. 
Besides, the superannuated and disabled slave was 
supported by his owner ; but the white slave is 
obliged to shift for himself, and look out for em- 
ployment, under the serious disadvantages of com- 
petition with the wage-seeker, and the despotism 
of the employer or his agent. In this way, the 
wage-slave is reduced to a worse condition than 
the negro slave. Practically, the question of per- 
sonal liberty has but little consideration ; not 
only from the fact that the negro is disposed to 
contentment with the supply of physical wants, 
but from the further fact that necessity and pov- 
erty leave but little liberty to enjoy for the 
wage-slave, however keenly he may feel the 
practical deprivation. 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 213 

Thus, by the application of the power of 
steam and electricity to labor-saving machinery, 
the capitalist is enabled to produce wealth by 
converting it into labor. The laborer is thereby 
robbed, because these powers and appliances are 
appropriated and monopolized by the few who 
can command capital. These powers and appli- 
ances are the gifts of God and the ingenuity of 
men in the laboring ranks. Legislatures have 
legalized and courts have confirmed these appro- 
priations, and thus the law is made the instru- 
ment of oppression and robbery. 

The rights of the people are as dear and 
sacred as life itself, and the government whose 
sole functions are the regulation and protection 
of those rights is employed to rob the people of 
them by their usurpation and exercise by unscru- 
pulous men whose ambition is to vie with the 
splendor and station of their competitors across 
the sea. And the people are made by their la- 
bor and servitude to support them. 

Law cannot make a wrong right nor a right 
wrong ; yet here is a system which robs the pro- 
ducers of wealth more effectually and systemat- 
ically, and with as little remorse, as the bandit 
outlaws of society commit theirs ; a system that 
condemns millions of human beings to a strug- 
gling, lingering existence, amid the lavishment of 



214 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

wealth and display of magnificence equaled only 
by the richest aristocracies of Europe, and in a 
country abounding in the most profuse natural re- 
sources that nature has ever lavished upon any 
country. 

What is the remedy? Correct thought must 
precede correct action. No one can do right 
without he thinks right. Here comes the ques- 
tion of education. The cause of the present self- 
ish condition has been discussed. Avarice has 
been the great teacher, and well has he done his 
work. The love of money is the ruling passion. 
Greed, cruel and relentless, is the presiding gen- 
ius, and all the skill and ingenuity of man has 
been employed to incorporate it into a govern- 
ment to concentrate and perpetuate its power. 

The inherent tendency of the human mind is 
to reverence authority, the more especially when 
expressed in the form of law and under the 
sanction of courts. Antiquity fortifies it, and 
imposing ceremonies give it an irresistible charm. 
The power of custom and habit to which the 
mind becomes familiar offers serious obstacles 
in the way of reform — obstacles that can only be 
removed by reason and a keen sense of right. 

The first thing is to consider the principles 
upon which a system is founded, and upon them 
lay out the proper procedure. We must decide 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 215 

what we want — what is needed to carry out the 
work. In the problem before us we have land, 
labor, and capital : land, the universal source of 
supply ; labor, the appliance of means to develop 
and produce ; and capital, the means for the pro- 
duction. Land, being a fixed quantity and base 
of supply, must be limited to the requirements of 
and controlled by labor. Capital, which is but 
stored-up labor, is the inseparable agent of labor. 
But as an indispensable and essential condition, 
the laborer must be intelligent and just. " The 
first question," says Henry George, " that natur- 
ally arises is that of right. Among whatever 
kind of people such a matter as this is discussed, 
the question of right is sure to be raised. This 
to me seems a very significant thing, for I believe 
it to spring from nothing less than a universal 
perception of the human mind — a perception of- 
ten dim and vague, yet still a universal percep- 
tion — that justice is the supreme law of the 
universe, so that as a short road to what is best, 
we instinctively ask what is right." 

Now, what is the right in this case ? That 
which one produces with his own means belongs 
to him. No one can deny this proposition. If 
capital is furnished by another, a portion of the 
products belongs to him. The two are then 
partners. Since capital is stored-up labor, they 



216 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

are really one factor in the production of wealth. 
But labor is intelligent ; it is life itself and must 
control. Either the laborer must own the capi- 
tal, or unite his interests with the owner of it. 
Then the interests of capital and labor are unit- 
ed, and protection to labor comes under the law 
of self-preservation. Labor-saving machinery 
would be utilized for the benefit of all, and 
wealth would increase, and poverty, with its con- 
sequent crime, degradation, and misery, would 
disappear, and the blessings of a true republic 
bring to realization all that the patriot fathers 
aimed to accomplish. 



TARIFF. 217 

CHAPTER XVI. 

TARIFF. 

"The freest government cannot long endure when the 
tendency of the law is to create a rapid accumulation of 
property in the hands of the few, and to render the masses 
poor and dependent."— Daniel Webster. 

" If I could, I would have free trade with all the world, 
without toll or custom-house." — Emerson. 

Intimately connected with the question of 
the relations of labor and capital is that of tariff. 
The question arises from a conflict of local inter- 
ests, as a method of raising a national revenue 
and protecting certain industries. In manufac- 
turing districts, high rates of tariff are con- 
tended for, and in agricultural districts the 
theory of low rate and even free trade seems to 
prevail. 

A tariff is a tax or duty laid on certain articles 
or commodities imported from foreign countries, 
as a mode of revenue and for the protection of 
domestic manufactures. 

As a source of revenue, it is quite generally 

admitted. This arises from the concessions of 

political parties in recognizing a tariff ; but this 

method for revenue is open to serious objections, 

10 



218 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

even if a better system were not at hand. As a 
means of protection, it is a complete success to 
the extent to which it is carried. But whom 
does it protect? Labor, and thus lift it from 
servile dependence ? The fact, as shown in the 
United States Census Reports, that wage-labor 
is less than a dollar a day, and has steadily de- 
creased about eight per cent since 1870, will 
show that labor is not the object of its fostering 
care. But somebody is protected. The rapid in- 
crease of capital in manufacturing and mining 
localities answers the question. But the tariff 
system is open to other serious objections, which 
will be considered in this chapter. 

Xot only will the reader's judgment be ap- 
pealed to, but facts from authentic sources will 
be presented to explain why politicians and sub- 
sidized journals are so sensitive on this subject. 
Let us illustrate : 

" A St. Louis merchant went to New York to 
])urchase goods. He first called on an English 
merchant who sold goods from his own manufac- 
tory in England. The St. Louis merchant asked 
the price of some woolen goods, and was told two 
dollars a yard. Said he, ' How is this? Before 
the war I got this kind of goods for one dollar a 
yard.' ' Yes, 5 rej^lied the English merchant, ' such 
was the price then, but your government has put 
one dollar a yard duty on this goods, and now we 
sell for two dollars, and pay one dollar to your 



TARIFF. 219 

government, and put the other dollar in onr own 
pocket.' The St. Louis merchant crossed the street 
to an American merchant, who manufactures his 
own goods in the United States, and asked the 
price of the same quality of goods, and was told 
two dollars a yard. He replied, 'How is this? 
The English merchant sells the same article at the 
same price, and he pays a duty on his goods.' 
1 That's so,' said the American merchant; 'the Eng- 
lish merchant sets the price, and we sell at his 
price, and that's where we have the advantage of 
him. We put the two dollars in our own pocket.' " 

If the duty be laid on imported goods of the 
same kind that are manufactured in this country 
and sold, the duty goes to the government ; but 
if manufactured in this country and sold, the 
duty is added to the cost of manufacture, and 
goes into the pocket of the manufacturer. 

To show the inconsistency and injustice to our 
industries, let us take two of the staple products 
of our own country, namely, sugar and tobacco. 
A duty of from two to five cents a pound is laid 
on sugar, and an internal-revenue tax is laid on 
tobacco. 

Through the manipulation of the markets, cap- 
italists control the price of sugar, and wholesale 
dealers and refiners receive a profit equal to the 
duty imposed on all the products of this country, 
at the expense of the consumers. On the other 
hand, a tax is laid on the tobacco that is produced 



220 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

in this country ; that goes direct to the govern- 
ment. So we see that in one instance the benefit 
goes to the favored capitalist, in the other it is 
paid by the producer. This discrimination is in 
favor of a certain class and against another. 
Even if the sugar-producer got the benefit, the 
injustice would have been no less ; but the gov- 
ernment is never guilty of favoring production. 
Both commodities are produced and imported, 
and bear the same relation to industry and trade. 

It is urged that tariff increases the price of 
labor and of agricultural products, thus increas- 
ing the prosperity of the country. 

It may be of interest to the reader to look back 
and ascertain if protection in the past has done 
anything in the way of redeeming the promises 
that have been made in its behalf. 

" Unfortunately for purposes of comparison, this 
country has uever enjoyed absolute free trade since 
the machinery of the Constitution was got into 
working order. We will have to content ourselves 
with comparisons between periods of high duties 
and periods of low duties. If protection possesses 
the virtue claimed for it by its advocates, every ad- 
vance in the rate of duty will be found to have been 
succeeded by, first, an increase in population through 
immigration ; second, a falling off of exports, of farm 
products; and third, in an increase in the price of 
the same ; and on the other hand, under periods of 
low duties the opposite of the foregoing results will 
be found to have succeeded. 



TARIFF. 221 

" The first tariff act in which the principle of pro- 
tection cut any figure was passed in 1816. There 
was an increase in the number of articles taxed, 
and also an increase of duties made in 1824 and in 
1828. 

" Let us now see what effect this had on immi- 
gration, prices, and exports of farm products : 

In 1820 the number of immigrants was 8,385 

" 1824 " " " " " 7,912 

" 1828 " " " " " 7,382 

" 1833 " " " " " 58,640 

u Thirteen years of unbroken protection gives an 
increase of over 80,000, of which 58,640 were in 
1833. In this year the compromise tariff went into 
effect. This act provided for a gradual reduction 
in the rate of duty until it reached twenty per cent. 
This period has been erroneously denominated a 
non-protective period, and is embraced in the years 
1833-41. 

"As stated above, the number of immigrants 
which arrived on our shores in 1833 was 58,640. 
After nine years of lower and regularly diminishing 
duties, the number of immigrants in 1842 was 
104,563. The high tariff in 1842 was followed in 
1843 with a reduction in the number of immigrants 
of about 40,000. Three-fourths of the year 1843 
brought but 52,496, which would be about 70,000 
for the year. 

" The Democratic Congress in 1846 gave protec- 
tion a ' black eye,' and immigrants to the number of 
234,968 responded to the change in policy. After 
four years of ' British free trade,' in 1850, 310,004, 
increased to 427,833 in 1854, immigrants cast their 
lot among us. 

''Never but once prior to 1880 did the number 



222 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

of immigrants equal the number that came to us in 

1854, namely, 459,803 in 1873 

"There was no change in the tariff from 1854 to 
1856; yet there was a falling off of more than one- 
half of the number of immigrants in the latter year. 
Again : there was no change in the rate of duty in 
the years 1879 and 1880 ; yet the difference in the 
number of immigrants arriving in the two years is 
very great, being 157,862 in 1879, and 457,257 in 
1880." 

If protection had increased the prosperity of 
our country and raised the price of farm prod- 
ucts, and thus stimulated agriculture, foreign im- 
migration would have responded to the change, 
but the foregoing exhibit shows that such is not 
the case. Our author goes on : 

" The great consideration with the farmer is the 
question of price. Fortunately, we have a complete 
record running back to a time that antedates the 
memory of the oldest inhabitant. Wheat is the 
staff of life, and I will take it as a criterion. Prices 
given are taken from the records of trade : 

Wheat in 1825 was worth per bushel $0.92 

" " 1826 " " " " 94 

" " 1827 " " " " 99 

" " 1828 " " " " 1.22 

" " 1829 " " " " 1.24 

" " 1830 " " w " 1.07 

" " 1831 " " " " 1.18£ 

" " 1832 " " " " 1.26 

Average for eight years 1. 10J 

" Under the compromise tariff — 



TARIFF. 223 

Wheat in 1833 was worth ..$1.19i 

" " 1834 " " '.. 1.06~ 

" " 1835 " " 1.21J 

tt u 1836 ci tt 178 

it tt 1837 tt a L?7 

" " 1838 " " 1.92 

" " 1839 " " 1.24^ 

" " 1840 " " 1.04| 

a tt lg41 it u 118 1 

tt u 1842 « " 1.14 

Average for ten years 1.35 

Increase of $0,241 per bushel. 

"From 1825 to 1832 was high tariff. The aver- 
age of wheat per bushel was §1.101. From 1833 to 
1842 was low tariff. The average of wheat per 
bushel was $1.35. Increase in price during period 
of low tariff, $0.24£. Second period of protection, 
1842-46. 

Wheat in 1843 was worth $0.98J 

" " 1844 " " 97* 

a a i 845 a a 104 r 

" " 1846 " " 1.081 

Average during high tariff, per bushel 1.02 

A reduction during this period, per bushel, $0.33. 
"Non-protection, first period, 1847-50. 

Wheat in 1847 was worth $1.36J 

tt a i 848 a u H 6 i 

a a i 849 u a ! 24 

" " 1850 " " 1.27| 

Average of four years of low duties 1.26 

An increase over protection, per bushel, $0.24. 
"Second period of low duties, from 1851-54 : 

Wheat in 1851 was worth $1.07-4- 

" " 1852 " " 1.10" 

" " 1853 " " 1.39 

a a 1854 a tt 2.14 

Average for four years of low duties, per bushel. . . 1.44 
Another increase of 18 cents per bushel. 



224 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

"Third period of low duties, from 1855-60. 

Wheat in 1855 was worth $2.43i 

" " 1856 " " 1.75 

u a 1857 « u L67 l 

" " 1858 " " 1.32J 

" " 1859 " " 1.43i 

" " 1860 " " 1.50 

Average for six years low duties, per bushel 1. 69 

" Still another increase of 25 cents, and 67 cents 
more per bushel than the average under the high 
tariff of 1842. 

" After fourteen years of what Mr. Carey styled 
' British free trade,' wheat was worth in 1860 $1.50, 
and averaged for the whole period $1.69 per bushel. 

" The table from which I have expounded the 
foregoing does not give prices since 1860; but I 
have one giving the price of flour down to 1867, 
and doubtless I could get data from the reports of 
the Department of Agriculture down to 1881, but I 
do not deem it necessary. 

In 1854 flour was worth per barrel $8.44 

" 1861 " " " u " 5.29 

Average for the years 1854 to 1861 6. 47 

In 1862 flour was worth per barrel 4.70 

" 1863 " " " " " 3.93 

" 1867 " " " " " 6.66 

Average for seven years, per barrel 4.94 

"A reduction under the tariff yet in force of $1.53 
per barrel ; and yet protectionists have the effront- 
ery to tell us that their swindling device is a good 
thing for farmers. Choice flour is now worth less 
than in 1860. 

" Here is another table which is a recapitulation 
of some lengthy ones, and which, for want of space, 



TARIFF. 



225 



I will not enumerate. 


The following are the aver- 


ages for the periods : 




Period. Wheat. Cotton. 


Corn. Rye. Oats. Butter. Cheese. 


1825-32.... $1.10^ .10£ 
1833-42.... 1.35 J .12 


.62 .67 .37 .15| .06f 
.57 .84J .43 ,16i .07i 
.77i .68 .34 .Hi .05| 
.68£ .72 .43 ,15£ .06* 
n\\ .91| .47 :17* .07$ 
.81£ .94 .48£ .19£ .08| 


1843-46.... 1.02 .06£ 


1847-50.... 1.26 .09 


1850-54.... 1.44 .09 


1855-60.,?. 1.69 .10 \ 



M Special attention is called to this last table. 
To assist in the matter, the periods of high and 
low tariff are here given : 

High tariff from 1825 to 1832, wheat per bushel 

Low " " 1833 to 1842, 

High " " 1843 to 1846, 

Low " " 1847 to 1850, 

Still lower " 1850 to 1854, 

British free trade 1855 to 1860, 



$1.10* 
1.35* 
1.02" 
1.26 
1.44 
1.69 



" I think I have shown how utterly opposed to 
fact is the statement that protection affords a bet- 
ter price for farm products ; and I will now exam- 
ine the other proposition, that protection builds up 
a home market. 

" If I were to give the exports of farm products 
for each year, not one reader in fifty would look 
them all over; sol will confine myself to compar- 
ing a few years under the different periods of high 
and low duties. And let me here remark, that I 
sometimes fall into the error of speaking of cer- 
tain periods as non-protective. We have never 
had non-protective periods, for the reason that 
Congress has never yet favored a bill that did 
not afford protection to many industries. Duties 
under the ' British free trade ' tariff average 
nineteen per cent. The principle of all tariffs 

10* 



226 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

where revenue is not alone the object is protec- 
tion. They differ only in degree. 

In 1850 farm products exported were §123,875,880 

" 1860 " " " " 260,139,925 

" 1870 " " " " . 391,269,695 

" 1880 " " " " 685,867,737 

" The same in a different form : 

Exports of farm products in 1850, per capita $5 

" " " " " 1860, " " 8 

" " " " " 1870, " " 10 

" " " " "1880, " " 13 

u The facts set forth in the foregoing tables are 
worth more than all the theories and sophistries 
contained in all the books that were ever printed 
with a view to cajole farmers into supporting the 
most stupendous and infamous swindle that was 
ever invented. There are thousands of farmers 
that firmly believe that protection builds up a home 
market at better prices, and they do not take the 
pains to inquire into the basis of their belief. In- 
vestigation is all that is necessary to convince any 
man that protectionist writers are either dishonest 
or ignorant. 

" The facts contained in this article are matters 
of history, accessible to protectionists as well as 
free traders ; but I have yet to see a single state- 
ment touching prices and exports of farm products 
emanating from protectionist writers. They take 
for granted that high wages result from protection ; 
in other words, they think that because manufac- 
turers are enabled to make large profits, they will 
divide with the laborer. Strikes and tramps were 
unknown under { British free trade."' — William 
Manning, 



TARIFF. 227 

Thus we see that a tariff does not favor immi- 
gration, advance the price of farm products, nor 
create a demand for home consumption. There 
are several reasons that induce immigration, 
among which are cheaper homes and better facil- 
ities for living. 

We are told that a high tariff advances wages, 
but the facts show the contrary. It enables 
manufacturers to increase the price of their arti- 
cles, but that they share the profits with their 
operatives is in no sense true. Holding absolute 
control over labor, they give no more than its ab- 
solute needs for existence, as the history of labor 
struggles most amply show. 

The following, from the " Saturday Express," 
well illustrates this point : 

"PROTECTION. THE AVERAGE WAGES OF LABOR 

LESS THAN A DOLLAR A DAY. 

" The ' New York Herald ' is not much impressed 
by the demonstrated value of the present high tariff 
to laboring men. Eeferring to the census bureau 
statistics, in Bulletin No. 302, giving the number of 
hands employed, the amount of wages paid, and the 
value of the material used, and the value of all the 
products for all the establishments of manufactur- 
ing industry in each of the States or Territories as 
returned at the census of 1880, the 'Herald' thus 
comments : 

u * The protectionists having had full swing during 
the decade under consideration, we look to find, of 



228 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

course, a most satisfactory and liberal outlay in the 
way of wages to operatives, as set forth in this doc- 
ument. 

" c The average number of hands employed is 
2,738,950 in 253,840 establishments; the amount of 
wages paid is $947,919,674. Dividing one by the 
other, we find the net average annual wages of our 
manufacturing operatives to be $346.08 — less than a 
dollar a day. And when it is considered that this 
includes all those skilled operatives who are paid 
high wages, it may be imagined that the rank and 
file are not very well equipped financially for their 
struggle with life ; house-rent, food, clothing, fuel, 
light — all to be supplied from less than a dollar a 
day. And it is not to be supposed that this exhibit 
occurs on account of the employment of women and 
children ; the fact being, that these form only 26 per 
cent of the whole number of operatives. The fig- 
ures are : 

Males above 16 years 2,025,279 

Females " 15 " 351,753 

Children and youths 181,918 

" 'This statement shows that the enormous gratuity 
which is given every year by the protective tariff to 
the manufacturers goes into their own pockets, while 
the operatives are ground down to the lowest 

POSSIBLE WAGE. 

" ' As the protective tax comes also out of the 
pockets of these very operatives, the rascally circle 
is complete. 

w ' But this is not the worst of it, for an examina- 
tion of the census of 1870 makes the following show- 
ing: In that year the number of hands employed 
in the manufactories was 2,053,996, and the amount 
of wages was $775,584,343, an annual average wage 
of $374.64, or $31.56 more than in 1880. So that 



TARIFF. 229 

the poor wages of the laboring man employed in 
our manufacturing establishments have actually de- 
clined in the ten years in the amount of $31.56 each, 
or more than 8 per cent. While all this leads to 
the suggestion that while the laboring classes are 
being humbugged by the manufactures into the be- 
lief that all their troubles originate with the capi- 
talists and railroads, they may as well commit to 
memory two pregnant facts : 

"'1. That in the manufacturing establishments 
the net average wages of the oj^erative is $346.08 
per year. 

" ' 2. That even this paltry sum is 8 per cent less 
than it was in 1870.' " 

Both the dominant parties are clamoring for 
tariff, and to make the thing appear different, the 
Republicans cry out " protective tariff," while the 
Democrats want " tariff for revenue only." All 
tariff is protective, unless confined to articles not 
produced in the country. The only difference is 
in the rate. High rate gives proportionate pro- 
tection and proportionate revenue, if importations 
are carried on. 

"A tariff for protection gives to the manufactur- 
ers a monopoly, in some cases so complete as to 
drive the foreign article from our ports. In such 
cases, the government receives no revenue, but the 
manufacturer can make a clear profit of the per cent 
fixed by the tariff, all of which is eventually paid 
by the consumer, and for which he receives no con- 
sideration. To illustrate this, let us take the duties 
on blankets for the year 1871, and the quantity im- 



230 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

ported. The duty on the four classes of blankets was 
87, 88, 100, and 109 per cent, respectively. The 
whole imports for that year amounted to $19,355, 
and. the tariff duties to $17,316. All the residue of 
blankets purchased during that year were home pro- 
ductions. The manufacturer has only to mark up 
his price to realize about 100 per cent over the 
price at which they would have been sold but for the 
protective tariff. 

' : Take boots and shoes as another illustration. 
We imported none in 1871, and of course no reve- 
nue was received on these articles in that year ; 
yet the manufacturer had the benefit of a tariff of 
35 per cent on each pair sold. If a pair of boots 
were sold at $8, the protection the wearer paid to 
the manufacturer was $2.80. The law compels the 
farmer and laborer to pay that sum as a bounty to 
the manufacturer. 

" On cotton goods the consumer pays a duty of 
from 35 to 63 per cent. For almost every article 
of clothing worn by man, woman, or child, a duty 
must be paid. The average is about 45 per cent on 
the value. 

" Prices are nearly uniform for the same classes 
of goods, whether of foreign or domestic manufac- 
ture. On imported articles the tariff is paid to the 
government ; on domestic manufacture the duty is 
paid to the manufacturer. This system compels 
the poor man to contribute more than his fair pro- 
portion to protect the already rich manufacturer.. 
To illustrate this, let us suppose that A is worth 
§500,000, and has a family of four to clothe, while 
B has nothing but his industry and perhaps a small 
homestead, and a family of eight to support. Both 
families must be clothed and fed ; each must con- 
tribute to the manufacturer the same rate of pro- 



TARIFF. 281 

tection. The man with his half a million of 
property and family of four will probably purchase 
as much for his family as the poor man will for his 
family of eight, each expending say $400. If the 
duty on the purchase averages only 40 per cent, 
each pays for the support of the government to 
protect home manufactures $160. The sweat- and 
toil of the poor man contributes just as much as 
the rich man's half-million. Or, suppose A is a 
man without a family and has great wealth, and B 
is dependent on a small farm for the support of 
himself and family. A spends for clothing $200, 
while B is obliged to expend $400 for clothing for 
his family. Hence, the labor of the poor man pays 
twice as much as the capital of the rich man to 
protect home industry and support the govern- 
ment. 

" To illustrate the difference between a revenue by 
tariff and direct tax, the following instance is given. 
A has $1,000 assessable property, consisting of a 
homestead, and working tools, etc., and a family of 
five to support. A national tax of one half of one 
per cent on $30,000,000,000 (the assessable prop- 
erty in the United States) would bring an income 
of $150,000,000. B is worth $500,000 and has a 
family of five to support. By direct tax, A would 
pay $5, B would pay $2,500. A revenue by tariff 
would compel A to pay say on $200 of dutiable 
articles 40 per cent (the present tariff rate is over 
43 per cent), which would be a tax of $80, instead of 
$5 by direct tax ; and B, who would purchase say 
$400 of dutiable articles, would pay $160 on $500,000, 
instead of $2,500 which he would pay by direct tax. 
The injustice is as 80 : 1,000 : : 160 : 500,000. The 
proportion would be 80 : 1,000 :: 160 : 2,000. 
B escapes paying tax on $498,000 ! Thus we see 



282 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

that a revenue by tariff throws the burden on the 
wealth-producers, while those who live on their 
ncome nearly escape the burden. "■ — JD. C. Cloud 
in Monopolies and the People. 

If this subject is not understood by the people, 
capitalists will continue to enrich themselves un- 
der the pretense of building up home industries 
and creating a home market. The truth is, our 
ports are open to immigration, drawn to this 
country by the prospect of better means of 
livelihood and at no expense to capitalists, to com- 
pete with an already overcrowded labor market, 
while the capitalists are protected and enriched 
by the very class they rob and oppress. 

If labor had its own it would need no protec- 
tion. If the motive powers of nature and the 
almost unlimited capacity of labor-saving ma- 
chinery could be utilized for the laborer instead of 
for the capitalist, with the inexhaustible resources 
of the country, the people of the United States 
could compete with the whole world. The ten- 
dency of American genius is inventive and prac- 
tical. This is shown in the manufacture of 
watches. In Switzerland each piece is made by 
hand, a necessarily slow and tedious process ; 
while in this country the same work is done by 
machinery, better and much cheaper ; and as a 
consequence, American watches are finding a 
market all over the world. 



TARIFF. 233 

The vast wealth resources of our country and 
the ability of the people to develop them are be- 
yond computation. Regulation of the industries 
might be so arranged as to secure a balance in 
all. With adequate facilities for exchange and 
transportation, we could furnish manufactured 
articles at rates that would allow us to export to 
other countries and compete with them in their 
own markets. Such stimulus to industry would 
be almost inconceivable, and under proper re- 
strictions and regulations no tariff, however high, 
could affect the industrial interests of the people. 

The American Samson has been shorn of his 
strength while asleep, and like his prototype of 
old his locks are reappearing, and he will seize 
the pillars of the temple of monopoly, and bring 
to destruction all his enemies. 

It is humiliating to witness the gradual de- 
struction of our commerce by the operation of 
protective tariff. 

" The fact is well known that our carrying trade 
has passed into the hands of other nations. That 
vessels can be built more cheaply in foreign ports is 
well known; as also that American ship-owners 
build or purchase their ships in Europe, sail under 
English colors, and use English papers, assigning as 
a reason therefor their inability to pay the duty 
upon the materials used in ship-building. So op- 
pressive is this duty, and so damaging has it become 
to our commerce, that Congress is being urged to 



234 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

grant subsidies to ship-owners. As a necessary re- 
sult of this system of protective tariff, the American - 
built ships cannot carry freight as cheaply as those 
built in foreign countries, and the producer must 
be content to have his produce, already taxed to 
half or two-thirds its value for inland transporta- 
tion, taxed beyond the amount charged by the ves- 
sels of other nations for ocean transportation, or 
allow the ocean trade to remain as it now is in the 
hands of England. 

"American seamen must abandon the ocean or 
sail under foreign flags. Protection has destroyed 
our mercantile navy, and compelled our seamen to 
seek employment elsewhere and in other occupa- 
tions. With our vast agricultural wealth, demand- 
ing the markets of the world, the protection policy 
of the government effectually closes our ports to 
other nations, while the farmer is obliged to accept 
for his grain the low price that a home market al- 
ready glutted will afford him." — Ibid. 

Mr. Julian, who has been quoted in a former 
chapter, said on the same occasion : 

" Our tariff laws for years past, while pretending 
to favor the laborer, have been framed in the in- 
terest of monopolists. The duty on coal, which is 
a necessity of life, admits of no defense. To tax 
coal is to tax the poor man's fire, to c tax the force 
of the steam-engine, to starve the laborer on whom 
we depend for work.' 

u The duty on leather has increased its cost an- 
nually about ten million dollars, while the consum- 
ers of boots and shoes have had to pay an increase 
of some fifteen millions of dollars. The duty on 
lumber has largely increased its price, and is wholly 



TARIFF. 235 

paid by the consumer. The duties on wool, salt, 
and pig-iron impose heavy burdens on the poor, and, 
like the other duties named, can scarcely be de- 
fended, even granting the principle of protection to 
be sound. This legislative discrimination in favor 
of the richer and more favored ranks in society, and 
against the laboring and producing masses, ought 
to cease. Instead of being loaded down with bur- 
dens and exactions for the aggrandizement of the 
few, they should share the unstinted favor of the 
government." 

Thus the scheme for the aggrandizement of 
capital, under the pretense of public good, has 
been one of the most efficient and successful of 
accomplishments. 

It cannot be too often nor too strongly urged 
upon the mind, the power and obstinacy of pre- 
conceived opinion. Pride of opinion has much 
to do with it. The reason why pertinacity of 
opinion is so strong with some is because such 
love of self is stronger than love of justice. 
Neither can the importance of right-thinking be 
overestimated. 

In regard to the subject under consideration, 
the accumulation of wealth by levying contribu- 
tions upon the sources of it, not only the tempo- 
ral and physical needs of society are seriously 
disturbed, but the very basis upon which a better 
system can be built is rapidly getting beyond the 
reach of the people, and a system founded upon 



286 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

rule and service will be adjusted upon an im- 
movable and permanent basis. Such a system, 
by controlling industry and gauging the produc- 
er's share to the "minimum at which the supply 
of labor can be kept up," will be organized into 
a perfect science, and the vast outlay of wealth 
will be devoted to the arts of oppression instead 
of being employed in the building up of a higher 
civilization. 

" The great aggregations of wealth," says Henry 
George, " are like great trees which strike deep 
roots and spread wide branches, and which, by 
sucking up the moisture from the soil, and inter- 
cepting the sunshine, stunt and kill the vegetation 
around them. When capitals of millions of dollars 
come in competition with capitals of thousands of 
dollars, the smaller capitalists must be driven out of 
the business or be destroyed. With great capital, 
nothing can compete but great capital. Hence, ev- 
ery aggregation of wealth increases the tendency to 
the aggregation of wealth and decreases the possibil- 
ity of the employee ever becoming more than au 
employee ; compelling him to compete with his 
fellows as to who will work cheapest for the great 
capitalist — a competition that can have but one 
result: that of forcing wages to the minimum at 
which the supply of labor can be kept up. Where 
we are is not so important as in what direction we 
are going ; and in the United States all tendencies 
are clearly in this direction. A while ago any jour- 
neyman shoemaker could set up a business for him- 
self with the savings of a few months, but now the 
operative shoemaker could not in a lifetime go into 
business for himself. 



TARIFF. 237 

" And now that great capital has entered agricul- 
ture, it must be with the same results. The large 
farmer who can buy the latest machinery at the 
lowest cash prices and use it at to the best advan- 
tages i who can run a straight furrow for miles ; 
who can make special rates with railroad companies, 
take advantage of the market, and sell in large lots 
for the least commission — must drive out the small 
farmer of the early American type, just as the shoe 
factory has driven out the journeyman shoemaker. 
And this is going on to-day." — Henry George. 

Observing and reflective minds throughout the 
country perceive the inevitable consequences of 
present conditions, and it is only for the people to 
realize the direction in which they are going to 
arrest the fatal tendency. 

One of the causes of this condition and this in- 
evitable tendency is the operation of our tariff 
system. At first, the weak and helpless condi- 
tion of manufacturing industries invited and 
seemed to demand protection, and it offered such 
convenient facilities for the collection of revenue 
that it was not difficult to inaugurate the system. 

As a system of revenue it is grossly unjust, be- 
cause it lays the burden of taxation upon labor 
instead of on property, and as a system of pro- 
tection, it protects the wolf instead of the lamb. 

" Xature creates the middle classes," says Pro- 
fessor Swing ; " the two extremes, being of human 
origin, are the outgrowth of false and pernicious 



238 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

systems of political economy, class laws, and spe- 
cial legislation, and one is the inevitable result of 
the other." This states in general terms the sub- 
stance of the whole matter, and a prominent fea- 
ture of " false and pernicious systems of political 
economy " is a tax laid on imported commodities 
" to protect home industries and furnish a reve- 
nue for the government." 

The necessity for raising a revenue to meet the 
expenditures of the civil war served as an excuse 
to increase the rate and enlarge the class of 
articles made dutiable, and now the average ad 
valorem tax is over 43 per cent and the list of 
articles has swelled to the volume of three thou- 
sand. On some of them the rate has reached the 
point of prohibition of importation. In such cases 
the home manufacturer marks his price accord- 
ingly. 

The remedy has already been hinted at. Throw 
off the restraints on labor, give it the benefits of 
a true medium of exchange, freedom from land 
monopoly, a co-operative system in all public en- 
terprises, and man's inventive genius in mechan- 
ical invention, and with the vast and inexhausti- 
ble resources of potential wealth, the power of 
foreign competition would no longer serve as an 
excuse to enrich capital by impoverishing labor, 
and direct taxation, the only just method of rais- 



TARIFF. 239 

ing a revenue, would be the source for govern- 
ment expenditures. 

Another serious objection to the tariff system 
is the corruption that springs from the patronage 
of the government in appointing officers to con- 
duct it. The power and importance of the ad- 
ministration consists in a great measure in the 
appointment of this service, and the strife for gov- 
ernment control itensifies party spirit to such an 
extent that politicians are enabled to "take cap- 
tive " the will of the people, and thus perpetuate 
existing evils. 

The enormous expense of collection is another 
objection. Revenue by direct tax could be col- 
lected by the method for the collection of state 
tax, and along with it, thus saving to the people 
an army of custom-house officers and others con- 
nected with the collection of customs. 

It is the business of politicians to mystify by 
sophistries and half-truths with wrong conclu- 
sions. There has been so much said and written 
on this subject, and so many falsities and theoret- 
ical speculations, that it is no difficult matter to 
keep the agitation up for political purposes. The 
politician presumes for his strength and success 
upon the people's ignorance, but is cunning 
enough not to let them suspect his trick. With 
a show of giving; them credit for much wisdom 



240 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and sagacity, he offers them the merest shams 
and pretenses, and depends on his art and soph- 
istry in palming them off as sound doctrine. To 
insure success, the politicians itensify and im- 
bitter party spirit to give direction to popular 
thought, and so prevent the examination and dis- 
cussion of true principles of government. Thus 
they make the people's strifes and dissentions 
their strength. 



CORPORATIONS. 241 

CHAPTER XVII. 

CORPORATIONS. 

"Work, work, work ; 

My labor never flags ; 
And what are its wages? A bed of straw, 

A crust of bread — and rags. 
That shattered roof, and this naked floor, 

A table, a broken chair ; 
And a wall so blank my shadow I thank 

For sometimes falling there." 

" A corporation is a civil institution, or, as it is 
sometimes termed, c a body politic,' the essential 
character of which is that it has a legal existence 
as a person under the name given it by legislative 
authority, either by* express charter or by prescrip- 
tion which implies a charter." — American Cyclo- 
pedia. 

Corporations for the aggregation and accumu- 
lation of wealth are of comparatively modern 
origin. Recent writers on political economy 
seem to turn their attention to the consideration 
of the most effective methods of concentrating 
wealth and accumulating large capital for the 
production of wealth as the leading object of 
government ; and corporations are the most effi- 
cient instrumentalities for that purpose. 

A corporation has a legal existence as a per- 
il 



242 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

son. While the rights of a person are limited to 
his natural life, and he is restrained by conscien- 
tious considerations and social dependencies, cor- 
porations are renewed in their existence, and 
having no obligations to society, they are free to 
act solely in the interests for which they are 
created, therefore relentless in their greed and 
despotic in their rule. 

" The king of England lives forever. He passes 
through many forms, but he does not die. He is a 
great conquerer, a great warrior, a vain and arro- 
gant woman, a fop, a libertine, an idiot, a states- 
man, sage, and soldier, a fierce and cruel tyrant, a 
. stupid beer-drinker, a sober matron ; but all the 
time king. 

" So a corporation lives forever. It is even worse 
than a king, for it has no human feeling or emo- 
tion. Its motive power is profit, and its only in- 
spiration is avarice. The corporation is a greater 
menace than noble or king." 

It is a law of nature that the greater attracts 
the less. All bodies attract directly in propor- 
tion to their quantity of matter. The principle 
holds good in political economy. A number of 
natural persons, having their natural rights rec- 
ognized by law, associate into a body politic for 
some financial or industrial enterprise, combine 
their capital, and become a power much greater 
than their dissociate powers, which, however, re- 
main intact. 



CORPORATIONS. 243 

A corporation, having been formed for a spe- 
cial purpose, is bound to its accomplishment ; for 
that, it exists. A power is created by law, vest- 
in £ in individuals rights in addition to their 
natural rights. Here is a disturbance of po- 
litical equilibrium, and the whole fabric is 
affected. These combine, and thus the power of 
vested rights gains the ascendency, and a few 
control the many. Sometimes a single individ- 
ual becomes a " body politic," having previously 
associated himself with others and gained a foot- 
hold by indomitable energy and deep forethought, 
outstripes his fellows in the race and gains a su- 
preme control. How nearly this condition of 
things is reached may be seen in the person of 
Jay Gould. Another instance is William Van- 
derbilt, who within the year has accumulated 
$20,000,000. 

The fact that not one cent of this vast sum 
was earned or produced by him will assist in re- 
alizing the gross outrage this is upon labor, and 
how destructive to a free government such a vast 
power becomes. 

It is a general opinion that corporations are 
necessary for carrying on great enterprises re- 
quiring immense outlay of capital. It must be 
remembered that in public enterprises all are 
equally interested, and a fund should be furnished 



244 THE NEW REPUBLIC, 

from the public treasury to carry on these enter- 
prises, and conducted by the respective jurisdic- 
tions for which they were intended; then all 
would be equal recipients in its benefits. 

Thus a highway or bridge, the improvement 
of a navigable stream, a canal or the building of 
a railway or telegraph line, should be carried 
on for the benefit of the township, county, state, 
or general government, according to the conven- 
ience and requirements of each. 

The canal system of the State of New York 
affords demonstrable proof of the practicability of 
state corporations. 

u De Witt Clinton broke with his own hand the 
ground in the beginning of the enterprise (the Erie 
Canal), July 4, 1817; and overcoming constant, un- 
remitting, and factious resistance, he had the feli- 
city of being borne, in October, 1825, in a barge on 
the artificial river which he seemed to all to have 
constructed from Lake Erie to the bay of New 
York, while bells were ringing and cannons saluted 
him at every stage of the imposing progress. No 
sooner had that great work been undertaken, in 
1817, than the population of the State began to 
swell with augmentation from other States and 
from abroad ; prosperity became universal ; old 
towns and cities expanded, and new cities rose and 
multiplied ; agriculture, manufacture, and com- 
merce quickened in their movements, and wealth 
flowed in upon the State from all directions." — 
American Cyclopedia. 



CORPORATIONS . 245 

The New York State canals have an aggregate 
length of 886 miles. 

"The gross earnings of these canals for the 
four years from September 30, 1860, to 1864 was 
817,722,384. After paying the expenses of superin- 
tendence and ordinary repairs for the same period, 
the net balance of surplus revenue was §14,442,408." 

This is an income to the State of $3,610,602 a 
year, and shows how much could be saved to 
the people if the government conducted all pub- 
lic enterprises. 

" De Witt Clinton had the good fortune to ma- 
ture the system of finance which enabled the State, 
unconscious of expense or care, to begin and carry 
out his policy of internal improvement." — Ameri- 
can Cyclopedia, 

How much of wise political economy is ex- 
pressed in this brief statement ! The rapid 
increase of population, the universal prosperity, 
the multiplicity of towns and cities, the quicken- 
ing of industries and the increase of wealth, the 
wisdom and efficiency of their management, and 
the financial measures, " unconscious of expense 
or care," in this vast and magnificent enterprise 
carried on by a State corporation. Why do not 
other statesmen arise and put into practice what 
is here so clearly demonstated? Corporate 
greed rules the nation, and a score of De Witt 



246 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

Clintons, working in unison and with most per- 
sistent energy, could do nothing should they at- 
tempt in opposition to corporations. This greedy 
monster must be throttled, his power crushed 
out, and equality of rights established be- 
fore liberty can be restored. 

Our postal system is another instance in which 
an extensive and complicated enterprise is car- 
ried on. Our educational system and military 
service are other proofs of the ability for public 
enterprises on a vast scale to be conducted by 
the government. 

In all enterprises of a private character, no one 
has a right to appropriate more legal power than 
another, because the rights of all are equal ; and 
to vest special power in some ignores the princi- 
ples upon which our independence was won and 
renders a free government impossible. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 
all men are created equal." There can be no 
equality where one citizen is vested with legal 
power to do what another is forbidden to do. 
The objector may urge that all have a right to 
incorporate. If for private purposes, then no 
one would be the gainer. The quality of corpo- 
rate power consists in giving to the incorporators 
an advantage over others, for if nothing is gained, 
there is no object in incorporating. 



CORPORATIONS. 247 

A receives a charter authorizing him to erect 
a bridge, and guarantees that no other bridge 
shall be built within three miles of it on the 
same stream. Why is this special privilege giv- 
en to A ? It is said to induce him to build the 
bridge, and a maximum toll is prescribed to pro- 
tect the public from extortion. His charter 
grants him a power; otherwise, why the re- 
straint ? 

This is the simplest case in which a corpora- 
tion can exist, and yet it is an injustice. Within 
twenty-five years, corporations have extended to 
all enterprises where capital can be best invested 
and industry monopolized. 

" The best lawyers, the best inventors, the best 
business men, are all on the pay-roll of the monopo- 
lists. The corporations have not only monopolized 
the means of producing wealth, but they are even 
forcing a c corner ' in brains. In attracting to them- 
selves the service of the most active and vigor- 
ous intellects and strongest wills, the confederate 
monopolies are doubly intrenched. The past his- 
tory of the world gives no record of any sys- 
tem of oppression so insidious, so strong, and so 
all-pervading as that of the predatory corporations 
which are absorbing the substance and undermining 
the liberties of the American people." 

They are the machinery by which the robbery 
of the people is accomplished. Banking corpor- 
ations control the currency of the nation, a power 



248 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 

incalculable and Inconceivable. The volume and 
stability or instability of the circulating medium 
directly affects the price of commodities; it de- 
termines the rate of interest by which millions 
are taken from labor to enrich corporations. 

Had the men who were instrumental in the 
creation of these banking corporations been con- 
scientious, there would have been some palliation 
and some hope that they would relinquish their 
power when they were convinced of the wrong ; 
but when we know that they are thoroughly 
familiar with the results and aimed to bring them 
about, we can feel nothing but execration for the 
crimes they are committing. They know the ef- 
fects of contraction and expansion of the curren- 
cy. They must therefore be declared guilty of 
deliberate intent to rob the nation of billions of 
dollars, with the full knowledge that it would 
drive multitudes to bankruptcy and ruin. To 
sanction this diabolical scheme by legalizing it 
only adds to its perfidy by investing it with the 
authority of the government. And these men 
are honored and trusted, and permitted to con- 
tinue to control the currency and rule prices. 

" The people sleep in ignorance, or such a thing 
could not be possible. When they awake, God 
have mercy on their oppressors, for they will not." 
— Leo Miller. 



CORPORATIONS. 249 

It is by corporations that transportation is car- 
ried on. Combinations are effected, and, with 
the exception of the canal system above noted, 
the entire carrying trade is monopolized ; dis- 
criminations are made, the people are insulted 
and robbed and placed at their mercy. Although 
demanding a paying rate on an enormous outlay 
of capital (watered stock), yet they refuse to pay 
taxes on an assessment of one-fourth of the value 
of their roads, to say nothing of the immense sub- 
sidies granted to them by the government. 

And now ex-Senator Conkling, in defending a 
corporation that refused to pay its taxes and ap- 
pealed the case to the United States Supreme 
Court, declares it to all intents and purposes a 
person in law, and as such is to be protected by 
the provisions of the Federal Constitution, amend- 
ed Article XIV. Sec. 1, under the following 
clause : " Nor shall any State deprive any person 
of life, liberty, or property, without due process 
of law, nor deny to any person within its juris- 
diction the equal protection of the laws " ; thus 
making a corporation the agent of an outrageous 
robbery, and the United States Constitution the 
authority for it. 

Vast aggregations of capital in manufacturing 
enterprises are effected by corporations which 
exercise their power in securing the protecticn 
11* 



250 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

of the government in laying high duties on im- 
ported commodities, and thus imposing a heavy 
and unjust burden on labor. 

The lines of communication for intelligence 
are controlled by corporations. The advantage 
of this control is of incalculable value. The 
state of the market, both foreign and domestic, 
the fluctuations in the stock market, the schemes 
and manipulations in political transactions, and 
shaping intelligence for the press cannot be over- 
estimated ; to say nothing of the immense reve- 
nues derived from it. 

Corporations for insurance business and stock 
operations, mining associations, in trade, and 
even in agriculture, organize their forces and 
carry on their operations to control labor. They 
are conspiracies against labor that seek to appro- 
priate its fruits and enslave the toiler ; they are 
usurpations of natural rights, inspired by greed 
and for self-aggrandizement. In other countries, 
rights, privileges, and powers are recognized as 
hereditary ; in this they are secured by legal 
enactments. In other countries, class distinctions 
of rich and poor, of high and low, bond and 
free, are supported by heredity ; in this they are 
established by law. While they increase with 
unexampled rapidity, there is neither time nor 
opportunity for culture, and indeed, no inclina* 



CORPORATIONS. 251 

tion for it ; in other countries the aristocracy- 
support their distinction by superior intelligence 
and culture, and that class possess genuine merit ; 
but our " aristocracy," founded on wealth, are 
characterized by arrogance, presumption, greed, 
tyranny, and aping the style and manners of 
foreign aristocracy, with all their vices, but with- 
out their virtues. 

Wealth, combined and employed as capital, 
possesses vastly more power than if employed in 
separate enterprises. Let twenty men with 
$5,000 each associate their capital, or let them 
employ it separately. Suppose it to be for the 
manufactuae of woolen goods. The grounds, 
sites, and buildings would be important items in 
the estimate, and would be a saving in a com- 
bined capital of more than half in them. The 
purchase of machinery for a single establish- 
ment with a capital of $100,000 would be much 
more advantageous and economical than for 
twenty manufactories of $5,000 each ; the num- 
ber of operatives, overseers, and skilled laborers 
would be proportionally less in one large estab- 
lishment, the advantages of the purchase of stock 
and the sale of goods would also correspond. 
Taking all these advantages in favor of large 
establishments — for the difference is not gain — 
we find them to be greatly in favor of large 



252 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 

capital. Any business enlarged is proportion- 
ately more profitable. If a farmer should divide 
his farm and carry on two distinct operations, with 
two sets of buildings, the necessary additional 
fencing implements, and the added care of man- 
gement, he would see the benefit of combination. 
Corporations secure all these advantages by the 
creation of a separate " person " in law, exercising 
the rights and prerogatives of an individual, with 
full power to push his enterprises without restraint 
of conscience, social dependence, or responsibil- 
ity. These legal robbers associate, conspire, and 
confederate, being organized for the sole purpose 
of gain, and free from all obligations to society, 
they build up in few hands immense power to 
prey upon the people and rob them of the nat- 
ural rights — nay, worse : through the machinery 
of government they compel the people to carry 
on these outrages against themselves ! 

There is one class of citizens — the wage-earners 
— who seem to be, by their poverty and utter de- 
pendence on corporate capital, hopelessly lost. 
They have gone over " to the bleak barrens and 
ice-walled shores of the frozen zone of poverty." 
The millions they create serve to perpetuate 
their poverty, and the ballots they hold have 
placed them in the condition of slavery, and 
continue to hold them there. Poverty is the 



CORPORATIONS. 253 

greatest foe to morality and intelligence. It 
dulls the finer sensibilities, and takes away all 
aspiration for anything manlike and noble ; and 
by constant and daily contact with physical 
forces, blunts and hardens the whole being. 
Wearied and worn with toil, one seeks rest and 
sleep, only to awaken to renewed toil and weari- 
ness. No time, no means, no opportunity, and 
finally no desire for intellectual and moral cul- 
ture, and as the " weary plowman plods his way," 
so plod the weary toilers, victims to the greed 
and tyranny of corporate power. 

Professor Carey says : " Under the established 
systems, the middle classes tend to pass away, 
and its condition is well expressed by the term, 
6 the uneasy class.' There is a permanent strife 
for life, and man endeavoring to snatch the bread 
from his neighbor's mouth." The wage-earner 
may be consigned to the category of slavery, the 
" middle class " are on their way, and no remedy 
now prescribed, no powers now invoked, will 
stay them from the same fate. Instead of there 
being anything to prevent the enslavement of the 
laborer, there is everything to facilitate it. The 
government is the agency employed by corpora- 
tions, and the law the instrumentality by which 
millionaires and paupers are made. 

What does suffrage amount to when votes can 



254 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

be bought at a mere nominal price on election 
day, or dictated by fear of starvation? It serves 
to add to the political power of wealth, and the 
establishment of tyranny. 

In spite of all the precautions of the people of 
California to guard and protect their liberties by 
constitutional enactment, the insidious power of 
corporations crept in and intrenched itself in its 
provisions. The artful framers set out with a 
" Declaration of Rights " in the f ollowino; Ian- 
o'uage : 

"All men are by nature free and independent, 
and have certain inalienable rights, among which 
are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty ; 
acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and 
pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness. 

" All political power is in the people. Govern- 
ment is instituted for the protection, security, and 
benefit of the people, and they have the right to 
alter or reform the same whenever the public good 
may require it." 

In section 4, article 12, we find the following 
definition of " corporation" : 

"The term 'corporations' as used in this article 
shall be construed to include all associations and 
joint-stock companies having any of the powers or 
privileges of corporations not possessed by individ- 
uals or partnerships ; and all corporations shall 
have the right to sue and be sued in all courts in 
like cases as natural persons." 



CORPORATIONS. 255 

The new Constitution of California declares, 
" All men are by nature free and independent, 
and have certain inalienable rights" ; and then in 
art. 12, sec. 4, it proceeds to alienate them by 
declaring corporations "to include all associations 
.... having any of the powers or privileges of 
corporations not 2>ossessed by individuals" Here 
we have a declaration of personal rights, and a 
provision in the same instrument conferring 
"powers and privileges" on corporations "not 
possessed by individuals and partnerships." 

The aim and intent of corporate power is the 
aggrandizement of the few by the accumulation 
of wealth. The productive power evoked from 
heat and electricity applied to mechanical inven- 
tion has increased the means for creating wealth 
a hundred-fold, and by means of corporations 
this power is utilized in the hands of the few. 
Hence, it is impossible to maintain political equal- 
ity, without which a republic cannot exist. 

In all cases the tendency of advancing civiliza- 
tion is the increase of power of producing wealth 
to meet the increasing needs advancing civiliza- 
tion creates. Every power that increases the 
production of wealth is monopolized by corpora- 
tions by virtue of aggregated capital and the ex- 
ercise of vested " rights." The laborer has no 
more interest in the production of wealth than 



256 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

the Cuban slave, and is reduced to wages upon 
which all his interests concentrate. 

Thus robbed of all the benefits of productive 
power, labor is reduced to utter dependence on 
those who exercise it ; machinery takes the place 
of manual labor, and the capitalist owns the one 
and controls the other. This control is by the 
agency of corporations ; therefore corporations 
are the enemies of republicanism, and the two 
cannot co-exist in the same government. By cor- 
porations, in the midst of wealth poverty exists, 
political equality is destroyed, and society separ- 
ated into ever-receding divisions of proud and 
haughty snobs and poor and humble slaves. Cor- 
porations serve the purpose of a huge wedge, 
driven not under society as a whole to lift it up, 
but in the midst of it, forcing one part up and 
the other down, and destroying the equality ; 
and thus the lower stratum loses the essential 
qualities of manhood and becomes a slave, a ma- 
chine, a commodity in character and destiny. 

The question may arise in the present condi- 
tion of society, How can the vast enterprises for 
the production of wealth be carried on without 
corporations ? Even the manufacture of a pin 
requires a capital expressed by scores of thou- 
sands, and so great is the division of labor that 
individual enterprise seems out of the question. 



CORPORATIONS, 257 

Co-operation is the answer. Let the producer 
have an equitable interest in the outcome of the 
enterprise. The experience of the Rochdale en- 
terprise in England, and others of still greater 
magnitude, not only demonstrate the practica- 
bility of co-operation, but the fact that it has 
gone into practical operation. The reader is re- 
ferred to Mr. Holyoke's works. 

In individual enterprises, all are entitled to an 
equal opportunity to acquire the means of life, 
and the combination of capital for the advantages 
it gives should be shared by all in proportion 
to their contribution in labor or capital. We 
must not lose sight of the fact that people 
have something else to do besides " making 
money." The production of wealth as an end 
is vitiating and degrading. Wealth is only the 
preliminary condition, the means to an end — the 
development and culture, the harmonization and 
refinement, the vigor and power of all the attri- 
butes of man, the happiness of the individual in 
the welfare of the whole. 

In regard to public enterprises and the ability 
of the people to operate them by government 
agency, let the canal system of New York, that 
brings annually a net income of millions to the 
State, be the answer. Our postal system, with 
its vast ramifications and its complicated opera- 



258 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

tions, is so familiar that it is overlooked. So 
necessary has it become that all enterprises, 
public and private, would be so crippled that 
business would soon cease. 

The difference between what is and what 
would be if all the appliances man is capable of 
bringing to bear on the welfare of society, is in- 
conceivable. Not without too much elaboration, 
is it possible to notice some of the benefits that 
would accrue from the relegation of the powers 
and privileges of private corporations to those of 
a public character. The people would demand 
a volume of currency equal to the demand of 
trade and industry; then time-transactions of 
debts and credits would no longer exist. This 
in itself would bring about a change in public 
affairs more marked than one in a thousand can 
conceive. It would overthrow the credit system, 
by which so many billions of dollars are taken 
from labor. A vast army of lawyers who now 
flourish and fatten would be compelled to look 
elsewhere for support. A multitude of jurors 
and witnesses would be released from service. 
An immense and complicated system of govern- 
ment machinery would be dispensed with, and 
justice would be meted out to the people. All 
public service would be done at a reasonable 
cost, and wealth would flow in to the producer, 



CORPORATIONS. 259 

who would have the time, opportunity, means, 
and disposition to apply it to the highest and 
best uses. The time for labor would be abridged, 
and the curse of poverty, like a darkening mist, 
would disappear before the light of a higher 
intelligence. The social forces that now are 
expended in strife and contention would be 
employed in building up, refining, and harmon- 
izing the social fabric. 

The following clear and forcible presentation 
is from the pen of Henry George, author of 
" Progress and Poverty " : 

" The growth of morality consequent upon the 
cessation of want would tend to a like diminution 
in other civil business of the courts, which could be 
hastened by the adoption of the common-sense 
proposition of Bentham to abolish all laws for the 
collection of debts and the enforcement of private 
contracts. The rise of wages, the opening of op- 
portunities for all to make an easy and comfortable 
living, would at once lessen, and would soon elim- 
inate from society the thieves, swindlers, and other 
classes of criminals, who spring from the unequal 
distribution of wealth. Thus the administration of 
the criminal law, with all its paraphernalia of police- 
men, detectives, prisons, and penitentiaries, would, 
like the administration of the civil law, cease to 
make such a drain upon the vital force and atten- 
tion of society. We should get rid, not only of 
many judges, bailiffs, clerks, and prison-keepers, 
but of the great host of lawyers who are now main- 
tained at the expense of producers ; and talent now 



260 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

wasted in legal subtleties would be turned to higher 
pursuits. 

"The legislative, judicial, and executive func- 
tions of government would in this way be vastly 
simplified ; nor can I think that the public debts 
and the standing armies, which are historically the 
outgrowth of the change from feudal to allodial 
tenures, would long remain after the reversion to 
the old idea that the land of a country is the com- 
mon right of the people of the conntry 

" Society would thus approach the ideal of Jef- 
fersonian democracy, the promised land of Herbert 
Spencer, the abolition of government ; but of gov- 
ernment only as a directing and repressive power. 
It would at the same time and in the same degree 
become possible for it to realize the dream of social- 
ism. All this simplification and abrogation of the 
present functions of government would make ]3os- 
sible the assumption of certain other functions 
which are now pressing for recognition. 

" Government could take upon itself the trans- 
mission of messages by telegraph as well as by 
mail, of building and operating railroads as well as 
of opening and maintaining common roads. YV'ith 
present functions so simplified and reduced, func- 
tions such as could be assumed without danger or 
strain, and would be under the supervision of pub- 
lic attention, which is now distracted 

" We might not establish public tables — they 
would be unnecessary ; but we could establish pub- 
lic baths, museums, libraries, gardens, lecture-rooms, 
music and dancing halls, theaters, universities, tech- 
nical schools, shooting galleries, play-grounds, gym- 
nasiums, etc. 

" Heat, light, and motive power, as well as water, 
might be conducted through our streets at public 



CORPORATIONS. 261 

expense; our roads be lined with fruit trees, dis- 
coverers and inventors rewarded, scientific investi- 
gations supported, and in a thousand ways the 
public revenues made to foster efforts for the pub- 
lic benefit. 

" We should reach the ideal of the socialist, but 
not through government rejuression. Government 
would change its character, and would become the 
administration of a great co-operative society. It 
would become merely the agency by which the 
common property was administered for the com- 
mon benefit. 

"Does this seem impracticable? Consider for a 
moment the vast changes that would be wrousrht in 
social life by a change which would assure to labor 
its full reward ; which would banish want and the 
fear of want, and give to the humblest freedom to 
develop in natural symmetry. 

i( In thinking of the possibilities of social organi- 
zation, we are apt to assume that greed is the 
strongest of human motives, and that systems of 
administration can only be safely based upon the 
idea that the fear of punishment is necessary to 
keep men honest, that selfish interests are always 
stronger than general interests. Nothing could be 
farther from the truth. 

" From whence springs this lust for gain, to grat- 
ify which men tread everything pure and noble 
under their feet ; to which they sacrifice all the 
higher possibilities of life ; which converts civility 
into a hollow pretense, patriotism into a sham, and 
religion into hyprocrisy ; which makes so much of 
civilized existence an Ishmaelitish warfare, of which 
the weapons are cunning and fraud ? 

" Does it not spring from the existence of want? 
.... Poverty is the open-mouthed, relentless 



262 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

hell, which yawns beneath civilized society. And 

it is hell enough For poverty is not 

merely deprivation : it means shame, degradation, 
the searing of the most sensitive parts of our moral 
and mental nature as with hot irons ; the denial of 
the strongest impulses and the sweetest affections ; 
the wrenching of the most vital nerves. 

" You love your wife, you love your children ; but 
would it not be easier to see them die than to see 
them reduced to the pinch of want, in which large 
classes in every highly civilized community live ? 
The strongest of animal passions is that with which 
we cling to life ; but it is an every-day occurrence 
in civilized societies for men to put poison to their 
mouths or pistols to their heads from fear of pov- 
erty ; and for one who does this there are probably 
a hundred who have the desire, but are restrained 
by instinctive shrinking, by religious considerations, 
or by family ties. 

" From this hell of poverty it is but natural that 
men should make every effort to escape. With the 
impulse to self-preservation and self-gratification 
combine nobler feelings, and love as well as fear 
urges in the struggle. Many a man does a mean 
thing, a dishonest thing, a greedy and a grasping and 
unjust thing, in the effort to place above want or 
the fear of want mother or wife or children 

" How sweet to the storm-stricken seems the safe 
harbor, food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, 
warmth to the shivering, rest to the weary, power 
to the weak, knowledge to him in whom the intel- 
lectual yearnings of the soul have been aroused ! 

" And thus the sting of want and the fear of want 
make men admire above all things the possession of 
riches, and to become wealthy is to become respect- 
ed and admired and influential. Get money — 



CORPORATIONS. 263 

honestly if you can, but at any rate, get money. 
This is the lesson that society is daily and hourly 
dinning in the ears of its members. Men instinct- 
ively admire virtue and truth, but the sting of 
want and the fear of want make them even more 
strongly admire the rich and sympathize with the 
fortunate. It is well to be honest and just, and 
men will commend it ; but he who by fraud and in- 
justice gets him a million dollars will have more 
respect and admiration and influence, more eye- 
service and lip-service, if not heart-service, than he 
who refuses it. . . . . 

" Whatever is potent for evil may be made potent 
for good. The change I have proposed would de- 
stroy the conditions that distort impulses in them- 
selves beneficent, and would transmute the forces 
that now tend to disintegrate society into forces 
which would tend to unite and purify it. 

" Give labor a free field and its full earnings, take 
for the benefit of the whole community that fund 
which the growth of the community creates, and 
want and the fear of want would be gone. The 
springs of production would be set free, and the 
enormous increase of wealth would give the poorest 
ample comfort. Men would no more worry about 
finding employment than they worry about finding 
air to breathe ; they need have no more care about 
physical necessities than do the lilies of the field. 
The progress of science, the march of invention, the 
diffusion of knowledge 9 would bring their benefits 
to all. 

" With this abolition of want and the fear of want, 
the admiration of riches would decay, and men would 
seek the respect and approbation of their fellows in 
other modes than by the acquisition and display of 
wealth. In this way there would be brought to the 



264 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

management of public affairs and the administration 
of common funds the skill, the attention, the fidel- 
ity and integrity that can now only be secured for 
private interests; and a railroad or gas-works might 
be operated on public account, not only more econ- 
nomically and efficiently than as at present under 
joint-stock management, but as economically and 
efficiently as would be possible under a single owner- 
ship 

" There are people into whose heads it never 
enters to conceive of any better state of society 
than that which now exists ; who imagine that the 
idea that there could be a state of society in which 
greed would be banished, prisons stand empty, in- 
dividual interests be subordinated to general inter- 
ests, and no one seek to rob or to oppress his neigh- 
bor, is but the dream of impracticable dreameis, for 
whom these practical, level-headed men who pride 
themselves on recognizing facts as they are have a 
hearty contempt. But such men — though some of 
them write books, and some of them occupy the 
chairs of universities, and some of them stand in 
the pulpit — do not think. If they were accustomed 
to dine in such eating-houses as are to be found in 
the lower quarters of London and Paris, where the 
knives and forks are chained to the table, they 
would deem it the natural, ineradicable disposition 
of man to carry off the knife and fork with which 
he has eaten. 

" Take a company of well-bred men and women 
dining together : there is no struggling for food, no 
attempt on the part of anyone to get more than his 
neighbor, no attempt to gorge or carry off. On the 
contrary, each one is anxious to help his neighbor 
before he partakes himself ; to offer to others the 
best, rather than pick it out for himself; and should 



CORPORATIONS. 265 

any one show the slightest disposition to prefer the 
gratification of his own appetite to that of the 
others, or in any way to act the pig or pilferer, the 
swift and heavy penalty of social contempt and 
ostracism would show how such conduct is repro- 
bated by common opinion. All this is so common 
as to excite no remark; as to seem the natural 
state of things : yet it is no more natural that men 
should not be greedy of food than that they should 
not be greedy of wealth. They are greedy of food 
when they are not assured that there will be a fair 
and equitable distribution which will give to each 
enough. But when these conditions are assured, 
they cease to be greedy of food. And so in society 
as at present constituted : men are greedy of wealth 
because the conditions of distribution are so unjust 
that instead of each being sure of enough, many 
are certain to be condemned to want. It is 4 the 
Devil catch the hindmost' of present social adjust- 
ment that causes the race and scramble for wealth, 
in which all considerations of justice, mercy, relig- 
ion, and sentiment are trampled under foot; in 
which men forget their own souls, and struggle to 
the very verge of the grave for what they cannot 
take beyond. But an equitable distribution of 
wealth, that would exempt all from the fear of 
want, would destroy the greed of wealth, just as 
in polite society the greed of food has been de- 
stroyed 

" But it may be said, to banish want and the fear 
of want would be to destroy the stimulus to exer- 
tion ; men would become simply idlers, and such a 
happy state of general comfort and content would 
be the death of progress. This is the old slave- 
holders' argument — that men can only be driven 
to labor with the lash. Nothing is more untrue. 

12 



266 THE NEW- REPUBLIC. 

Want might be banished, but desire would remain. 
Man is the unsatisfied animal. He has but begun 
to explore, and the universe lies before him. Each 
step that he takes opens new vistas and kindles 
new desires. He is the constructive animal ; he 
builds, he improves , he invents, and puts together ; 
and the greater the thing he does, the greater the 
thing he wants to do. He is more than an animal. 
Whatever be the intelligence that breathes through 
nature, it is in that likeness that man is made. 
The steamship driven by her throbbing engines 
through the seas is in kind, though not in degree, 
as much a creation as the whale that swims beneath. 
The telescope and the microscope — what are they 
but added eyes which man has made for himself ? 
The soft webs and fair colors in which our women 
array themselves — do they not answer to the plum- 
age that nature gives the bird? Man must be 
doing something, or fancy that he is doing some- 
thing; for in him throbs creative impulse; the 
mere basker in the sunshine is not a natural but an 
abnormal man." — (pp. 408-419.) 

We could not forbear this long quotation from 
Mr. George's book. It is so applicable to our 
case, and so vivid in description of the present 
and prospective condition of man ! The objection 
that to banish want and the fear of want would 
destroy the stimulus for exertion is farther an- 
swered by stating the fact that many of the most 
brilliant and active minds have been of those who 
were placed beyond want. In fact, the freer from 
this dread incubus, the stronger is the impulse 



CORPORATIONS. 267 

to higher and nobler modes of life. The present 
disparity of social conditions — the struggle with 
poverty on the one hand and the inordinate and 
unjust accumulation of wealth on the other — tends 
to destroy those higher aspirations that better 
conditions would prompt. Avarice is the inspir- 
ing genius ; it corrupts the social fountain ; it 
turns the channel of thought and feeling from 
the higher impulses that are slumbering in the 
soul. 

In our government, corporations are the means 
by which these conditions of extreme wealth and 
extreme poverty exist — conditions fatal to the 
prosperity and happiness of the people. The fear 
of want that characterizes the "uneasy class" — 
those occupying a middle ground but with a 
downward tendency — disqualifies them for better 
impulses and higher aspirations. 

Corporations for individual aggrandizement 
must give way to co-operative enterprises ; and 
measures for the public good must be carried on 
for the equal benefit of all. Justice is thus made 
possible, and equality established — conditions ab- 
solutely essential to a true republic. 



268 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 

1 A weapon that comes down so still 

As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 
But executes a freeman's will, 

As lightning does the will of God ; 
And from its force nor doors nor locks 

Can shield you : 'tis the ballot-box." 

Rights enjoyed imply duties to be performed. 
Such are the demands of life. The balance of 
privilege and responsibility, of service and re- 
ward, is the constant requirement of justice. 

The eventful march of human progress carries 
along with it the service to be rendered as well 
as the privileges to be enjoyed ; the one is as 
essential as the other is valuable. 

Among the most important duties the citizens 
of a republic are required to perform are : 

1. Acquiring the necessary qualification. A 
clear conception of the principles upon which a 
free government is founded, the relations its citi- 
zens hold to it and to each other, are the first 
considerations. 

Experience as well as reason demonstrates the 
fact that due qualification for any work is a 
necessity ; but in matters of government this 



QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 269 

seems to be overlooked. Reliance upon authority 
and blind confidence in those who are in the ex- 
ercise of it, intensified by political bias and party 
zeal, without the "eternal vigilance" so ear- 
nestly recommended by that great apostle of 
human liberty, Thomas Jefferson, are fatal de- 
fects in the qualification for citizenship. Taking 
advantage of these, designing and ambitious men, 
selected not for their qualification but for their 
availability, are thrust upon the people — not 
chosen by them — to carry out the schemes for 
securing wealth and dominion. It is clearly the 
duty of citizens to protect themselves from sucli 
imposition ; therefore, such a system of educa- 
tion as will develop a knowledge of the principles 
of a true republic is the pressing and imperative 
requirement. 

Whatever the character of the government 
may be, the governed must abide by it ; and 
the question here is, What shall be the character 
of the governed? For in a republic they are the 
governors. This is so evident that it requires 
nothing; but the bare statement to bring it home 
to every intelligent mind. Are they self-reliant, 
and sufficiently independent of political tricksters ; 
of the influence of party " fealty "; of the tyranny 
of capital ; free from the debasing influences of 
vice ? It is the aim and plan of the politicians 



270 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

and their masters to mystify, to distract and 
weaken, to demoralize, to create distrust and 
destroy confidence. The ignorant man is the 
weak man. He is the most easily led to believe 
he is wise, and therefore the most easily hood- 
winked. His prejudices are aroused ; he im- 
agines them to be sound principles ; party spirit is 
awakened forthwith ; in his estimation he be- 
comes a patriot. He mistakes sophistry for 
reason, and vehement declamation for profound 
wisdom. He is alike the sport and the victim of 
political jugglery. No one is capable of being 
deceived, but there stands ready a deceiver ; no 
one in a condition to be robbed, but there stands 
ready a robber. 

Jefferson's test of the qualification for office is 
equally applicable to the citizen : " Is he capable? 
Is he honest ? " The science of political economy 
should be regularly and thoroughly taught; not 
the theories found in the writings of the subjects 
of kings, and servilely imitated by writers who 
profess to live under a republican government ; 
into whose heads the idea of the true source of 
power never enters; who take for granted the 
complicated and mystified theories of English 
finance, the oppressive and wicked system of land 
tenures, and thus establishing and firmly rooting 
the idea of the justice of land monopoly, a dual 



QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 271 

legislative system to serve the interests of the 
"upper" class, and a judiciary system relegat- 
ing the administration of justice to a class of 
special experts, thus creating not only a vast 
source of income, but the greater evil of the ex- 
ercise of political power — evils fastened upon the 
people by foreign political economists and jurists. 

The structure of republican government is es- 
sentially different from that of monarchical ; as 
different as the source of power is different, 
which requires as much difference in principle 
as there is in source of power ; and an attempt to 
teach republicanism on monarchical principles is 
as futile as the attempt to teach morals by the 
code of the highwayman. 

There can be no proposition plainer than to be 
able to do anything successfully there must be a 
qualification for the work. The true principles 
of a republican government have never yet come 
to the public mind, much less been systematically 
taught. Every citizen should master them — must 
master them ; not the mass of rubbish found in 
the musty tomes of English jurisprudence and 
political economy, but the principles of justice in 
the recognition of the equality of natural rights 
and their benefits to be enjoyed by all; the just 
and equal distribution of wealth by which each 
producer may hold and enjoy his own ; the meth- 



272 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

ods of building, equipping, and operating lines 
of travel, transportation, and intelligence upon a 
system of actual cost ; a method for the adminis- 
tration of justice by ready and simple means, 
and by which emancipation from the control of 
lawyers and judges, who now operate by the 
complicated intricacies of theories that have been 
accumulating for ages. 

The elements necessary to be understood are 
not complicated and massive beyond the compre- 
hension of ordinary capacity when developed ; 
otherwise, there is no possibility of self-govern- 
ment : in which case, here ends the whole matter. 

The truth is, we are and have been under the 
tuition of English political economists and jurists, 
who have fastened their systems upon us, and, 
as like causes produce like effects, our political 
and industrial condition resembles that of its 
prototype as nearly as modifying influences will 
allow. 

2. An appreciation of the natural rights upon 
which a true republic is founded. 

Experience and observation show the indiffer- 
ence of the people under the present system of 
government to an appreciation of the priceless 
value of the natural rights endowed upon them 
by their Creator. 

After a hundred years of failure to secure their 



QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 273 

just exercise, is it any wonder that the people are 
discouraged, demoralized ? Under the false and 
pernicious system of competitive industry, where 
every man's hand is against his neighbor's, where 
want and poverty, and the suffering and disgrace 
attending them, have been so long in operation, is 
it any wonder that greed and avarice have be- 
come the ruling forces of society ? The appreci- 
ation of justice and the idea of its rule in the 
affairs of life are not looked for in this age of 
greed and selfishness. Justice is the equilibrium 
of values, and its blessings are realized just in 
proportion to the general intelligence and virtue 
of the people; and a government is good just in 
proportion to the degree of justice exercised in it. 
Selfishness is the great antagonist of justice, and 
governments are the instrumentalities for the ex- 
ercise of the one, in despotism and slavery by the 
ignorance and moral obliquity of the governed, 
or in liberty, equality, and happiness by the in- 
telligence and virtue of the governed. 

Truth is the torch that lights to the domain of 
justice ; error always leads astray into the des- 
potism of selfishness. Truth is the child of 
knowledge ; error, that of ignorance. " He whom 
the truth makes free is free indeed," and in the en- 
joyment of its innumerable blessings ; but he who 
flounders in the sea of error is carried on its 
12* 



274 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

darksome waves into the domain of poverty, de- 
gradation, misery, and ruin. 

Intelligence comes to us only by hard and per- 
sistent effort, and well it is that it does, or we 
would sink into intellectual and moral inanition. 
The effort required to develop the intellectual 
and moral powers yields a double blessing ; with 
the developement by acquisition comes the ca- 
pacity for gratification that activity affords. 

The legitimate pursuit of all thought is truth ; 
the inevitable result of ignorance is error. 
Truth builds up and preserves, and carries us 
upward and onward to illimitable heights of 
grandeur and glory ; error arrests and turns us 
backward into barrenness and gloom : the one 
gives light and joy, the other darkness and mis- 
ery. Truth comes as the fruit of effort and in- 
dustry ; error of ignorance and misguided zeal : 
the one is the spirit of right, the other the ghost 
of wrong. The inseparable companion of truth 
is love ; that of error is passion. In a political 
sense, error is terrible to contemplate. Its off- 
spring are hate, intolerance, pride, egotism, big- 
otry, superstition, greed, oppression. It gave the 
poison to Socrates ; it nailed the gentle Nazarene 
upon the cross; it imprisoned Copernicus ; it 
manacled the hands of Galileo, and laid the in- 
junction of silence upon his lips for uttering a 



QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 275 

great and immortal truth ; it murdered the inno- 
cent victims of alleged witchcraft ; it decapi- 
tated Charles I. of England, and then tore open 
the grave of his destroyer, Cromwell, snatched 
his body from it, hung it upon a gibbet, and then 
quartered it. It has immolated the sons and 
daughters of liberty upon its altar, and covered 
the seat of justice with the robes of iniquity. It 
antagonizes freedom and destroys human happi- 
ness. It is strongly intrenched in the citadel of 
human affection, and is the main reliance of 
tyrants. Liberty cannot exist where error reigns. 
With keen moral perceptions and appreciation 
of justice, with natural rights weighed and scaled 
up to their full value, the fruits of ignorance and 
error — poverty, slavery, depravity, erime, and 
misery — would not, could not, exist. We now 
suffer and tolerate these evils : ought not this to 
arouse us to the fact that moral appreciation is 
not up to the point requisite for individual free- 
dom and happiness, the true aim of popular 
government ? Ignorance and vice are insepara- 
ble in the administration of government. Igno- 
rance converts liberty into license, and vice 
panders to the lowest passions. Ignorance tol- 
erates wrong because it cannot comprehend right, 
vice supports it because it ministers to sensuality. 
" We must educate ! We must educate ! Or 



276 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

else we perish ! " said an American writer years 
ago. The truth of this is so apparent that it 
needs no statement. The rapid creation of 
wealth, without the corresponding moral culture, 
gives impetus and force to the rule of passion ; 
the control of this increased wealth by a few, 
without due qualification in the many, must be 
disastrous to the rule of justice and the reign of 
liberty. 

Intelligence and virtue are inseparable. We 
do not appreciate our rights because we do not 
understand them. Who is able to measure the 
value, the resources, or compass the limits of 
power that slumber in the human soul? "The 
human mind," says a living writer, " is the re- 
pository of infinite possibilities." Accustomed 
to toil and to the cruel reign of greed and unhal- 
lowed ambition, these having never been duly 
developed, cannot be duly appreciated. 

The energy of the toiler has been expended in 
the struggle with poverty, and the incessant 
haunting of the fear of want, and the forebodings 
of misery that follow in its train have prevented 
the higher and nobler attributes of the soul from 
being called out. 

Environments create conditions. Because we 
have so often seen the suffering and torture of 
anxiety proceeding from poverty, and know not 



QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 277 

how soon we may become its victims, we have 
grown cautious and selfish. Everthino; that 
touches our pecuniary interests render us ex- 
tremely solicitous. We give an intellectual 
assent to the statements of history and the deduc- 
tions of science, for the simple reason that they 
do not perceptibly affect our pockets. 

So far as they are concerned, the nebula hy- 
pothesis of La Place may be true or not, and the 
results of the ever-busy workers in elaborating 
and formulating scientific data are alike indiffer- 
ent to us, because we see no direct relation be- 
tween them and our purses. So we do not 
perceive the intimate relations between and the 
direct dependence on all that makes life dear and 
valuable, a just and true government, and the 
welfare and happiness of the people. 

We are ready enough to resist the evils that 
reach our doors, without an appreciation or even 
a laudable effort to grasp and comprehend the 
cause. We overlook the gigantic wrong and 
try to grapple with its effects. Unless we clearly 
perceive the underlying cause of the evils from 
which we suffer, we will never make an effort to 
remove it. That cause lies in an unjustly con- 
stituted government, wherein usurped rights, 
not natural rights, are the foundation. The abil- 
ity to comprehend that wrong basis and fully 



278 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

appreciate the right one are indespensable quali- 
fications in the citizens of a republic. Justice 
is its constructive principle, liberty its temple, 
equality its condition, and the free exercise of 
all the natural rights its aim and consummation. 
The power to conceive and appreciate the prin- 
ciples and forces that constitute a republic are 
absolutely necessary to its existence. This must 
be acquired. The immensity of its importance 
cannot be expressed or even estimated. The ap- 
plication of this power to the purposes of gov- 
ernment is the highest and most important duty 
of man. A well-constituted government is the 
essential condition for the most advanced civili- 
zation, and upon which it must depend. What 
duty, then, so imperative ? What benefit so great ? 
What result so grand? Would the curse of in- 
temperance, with its horrible train of crime, deg- 
radation, moral, social, domestic, physical, and 
financial ruin, be tolerated when virtue is appre- 
ciated ? Would we behold the tears and hear 
the cries of women and children in their suffer- 
ings from hunger and cold, with indifference, 
if the sense of justice glowed in our hearts? 
Would corporate power, inspired by greed and 
impelled by cupidity, place its iron heel on the 
neck of labor, to rob and enslave it without a 
protest, if fraternal love beamed in our souls? 



QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZEXSIIIP. 279 

Would the tyrant robber-chiefs trample upon the 
people's rights, while we look on in slavish fear, 
if there was a spark of the love of liberty glow- 
ing in our breasts ? Would courts be bribed and 
lobyists flourish, if corruption was not tolerated ? 
Would land robbery, money swindling, railroad 
extortion, and gambling speculation be the order 
and the rule in a government of the people, for 
the people, by the people, if they did their duty 
as citizens? 

We answer, No ! There is no question in 
this matter. We cannot tolerate wrong when 
we realize it and know the remedy. We do tol- 
erate it. Our duty as citizens is plain. We 
must not expect reward without earning it. The 
blessings of liberty come only to those who 
achieve liberty. 



280 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 

" A new and fair division of the goods and rights of this 
world should be the main object of those who conduct human 
affairs."— De Tocqueville. 

u Since writers have so confounded society with 
government as to leave little or no distinction be- 
tween them, whereas, they are not only different, 
but have different origins : society is produced by 
our wants, and government by our wickedness / the 
former promotes our haziness positively by uniting 
our affections , the latter negatively by restraining 
our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the 
other creates distinctions. 

• ; Society in every state is a blessing; but govern- 
ment, even in its best estate, is but a necessary evil : 
in its worst, an intolerable one; for when we suffer, 
or are exposed to the same miseries by a govern- 
ment which we might expect in a country without 
a government, our calamity is heightened by re- 
flecting that we furnish the means by which we 
suffer * 

a Government, like dress, is the badge of lost inno- 
cence ; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of 
the bowers of Paradise. For, were his impulses of 
conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, 
man would need no other law-giver; but that not be- 
ing the case, he finds it necessary to render up a part 

* In this allusion to the British government, how striking 
the analogy between it and our own ! 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 281 

of his property to furnish means for the protection 
of the rest ; and this he is induced to do by the same 
prudence which in every other case advises him out 
of two evils to choose the least ; wherefore, secur- 
ity being the true design and end of government, 
it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof 
appears most likely to insure it to us with the least 
expense and greatest benefit is preferable to all 
others. In order to gain a clear and just idea of 
the design and end of government, let us suppose a 
small number of persons settled in some sequestered 
part of the earth unconnected with the rest ; they 
will represent the first peopling of any country or 
of the world. In this state of natural liberty soci- 
ety will be their first thought, a thousand motives 
will excite them thereto ; the strength of one man 
is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted 
for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to 
seek assistance and relief of another, who in his 
turn requires the same. Four or five united would 
be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of 
a wilderness ; but one man might labor out the com- 
mon period of life without accomplishing anything : 
when he had felled his timber he could not remove 
it, nor erect it after it was removed ; hunger in the 
mean time would urge him from his work, and every 
different w T ant would call him a different way. 
Disease — nay, even misfortune — would be death, for 
though neither might be mortal, yet either would 
disable him from living, and reduce him to a state 
in which he might rather be said to perish than 
to die. 

" Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would 
soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society ; 
the reciprocal blessings of which would supersede 
and render the obligations of law and government 



282 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

unnecessary, while they remained perfectly just to 
each other ; but as nothing but heaven is impreg- 
nable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in 
proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of 
emigration which bind them together in a com- 
mon cause, they will begin to relax in their duty 
and attachment, and this remissness will point out 
the necessity of establishing some form of govern- 
ment to supply defect of moral virtue. 

" Some convenient tree will afford them a state 
house, under the branches of which the whole col- 
ony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. 
It is more than probable that their first laws will 
have the title only of Regulations, and be enforced 
by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this 
first parliament every man, by natural right, will 
have a seat. 

" But as the colony increases, public concerns will 
increase likewise, and the distance at which the 
members may be separated will render it too incon- 
venient for all of them to meet on every occasion as 
at first, when their number was small, their habita- 
tions near, and public concerns few and trifling. 

" This will point out the convenience of their con- 
senting to leave the legislative part to be managed 
by a select number chosen from the whole body, 
who are supposed to have the same concerns at 
stake which those have who appoint them, and who 
will act in the same manner as the whole body 
would were they present. If the colony continue 
increasing, it will become necessary to augment the 
number of representatives ; and that the interest of 
every part of the colony may be attended to, it will 
be found best to divide the whole into convenient 
parts, each part sending its proper number ; and that 
the elected might never form to themselves an inter- 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 283 

est seperate from the electors, prudence will point 
out the propriety of having elections often ; because 
as the elected might by that means return and mix 
again with the general body of the electors, in a few 
months their fidelity to the public will be secured 
by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for 
themselves. And as this frequent interchange will 
establish a common interest with every part of the 
community, they will mutually and naturally sup- 
port each other, and on this depends the strength of 
government, and the happiness of the governed. 

il Here, then, is the origin and rise of government, 
namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability 
of moral virtue to govern the world ; here, too, is 
the design and end of government, viz., freedom and 
security. And however our eyes may be dazzled 
with the show or our ears deceived by sound, how- 
ever prejudice may warp our wills or interest dark- 
en our understanding, the simple virtue of nature 
and reason will say it is right. 

" I draw my idea of government from a principle 
in nature which no art can overturn ; viz., that the 
more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be 
disordered, and the more easily repaired when dis- 
ordered/' — Paints Bights of Man. 

The aim and intent of a republic is the regula- 
tion and protection of the people in the free and 
full exercise of their natural and inalienable 
rights. The necessity of government arises from 
the clashing of selfish interests; the power of 
government is commensurate with the needs and 
wants of man ; and the character of government 
will correspond with the character of the people 



284 THE KEW REPUBLIC. 

composing it. The foundation of republican 
government is the natural rights of man and his 
common interests. The 'principles of a republi- 
can government consist in a free and voluntary 
compact by which the units form an aggregate, 
each maintaining his personal sovereignty ; with 
a mutual agreement to abide by and conform to 
certain prescriptions for mutual benefit and safe- 
ty ; with constitutional provisions for organi- 
zation, in which are specified the sovereign 
functions of government and provisions for ex- 
ercising them ; provisions for electing some of 
their own number, and delegating power to act 
within certain prescribed limits; being a volun- 
tary national association, recognizing their nat- 
ural rights and organizing for the sole purpose 
of securing their exercise and enjoyment. 

Such government retains the power in the 
people ; it serves the highest purposes of gov- 
ernment, and lays a foundation lasting as long as 
the necessity for government exists. 

It is the most advanced plan of government, 
founded on the recognition of the individual 
rights of property 

How far these principles are to be carried out 
depends on the people composing it. 

Its embodiment of principles and structure are 
prescribed and formulated in a constitution. This 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 285 

is not the work of the government, but of the 
people; it is the formation of the government. 

It defines and formulates the natural rights of 
the citizens. 

It creates and establishes legislative and exec- 
utive powers, prescribes a method of electing 
representatives, and determines their term of 
service and compensation therefor. 

It defines the sovereign functions of govern- 
ment, and provides measures for their perform- 
ance. 

It provides for self-defense and relations with 
other governments ; for revenue and public en- 
terprises. 

It secures to all its citizens equal rights, privi- 
leges, and opportunities. 

It provides for schools of necessary kinds and 
their support, and due qualification for citizen- 
ship. 

It creates modes for the administration of jus- 
tice and the disposition and treatment of criminals ; 
for the preservation of health, and protection from 
the allurements of debasing and degrading vices. 

It secures freedom of opinion on all subjects, 
and freedom of speech and assemblage. 

All its institutions are public corporations: its 
postal system, its telegraph and other lines of 
communication, its transportation and travel, its 



286 THE NEW .REPUBLIC. 

education and bureaus for information, are estab- 
lished and conducted by government. Individual 
rights, privileges, and opportunities are equal, and 
all duties equally required and all burdens equal- 
ly borne in proportion to their ability. Compen- 
sation for public service should be no inducement 
for being sought. For when extraordinary power 
and extraordinary pay are conferred upon any 
individual in government, he becomes the center 
around which every kind of corruption generates 
and forms. Give any man a very large official 
salary, and add thereto the power of disposing of 
places at the expense of the government, and of- 
fices of public service, and the liberties of the 
people are no longer secure. When once such a 
vicious system is established, it becomes the 
guard and protection of inferior abuses. Cor- 
ruption, once tolerated, extends to all the depart- 
ments of the government and becomes the rule. 

It is the interest of each to defend the 
others, and thus all keep pure, for all have a 
mutual interest. Reformation never comes from 
those in power. 

If we would compare the Federal Constitution 
with one framed as here indicated, we would at 
once discover its inadaptability to the require* 
ments of a true republic. 

In its legislative department, it has a branch 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 287 

devoted to the interests of the higher class. By 
its criminal action, untold millions of dollars have 
been drawn from labor and given to idleness ; 
by it a debt has been created and fastened upon 
the people, to be borne by them alone, while that 
class best able to bear it are exonerated, and 
this debt is sought to be perpetual. Through 
the influence of its leading members, that debt 
has been doubled in value by legislative enact- 
ment, and without any value in return to the 
people. 

Had it not been for the interference of the 
Senate, the money which was designed for the 
expenditure of the government during the civil 
war, and which would have been at par with 
gold, would have remained in sufficient volume 
in circulation for all the purposes of industry 
and commerce. 

The difference between such a condition and 
that which now exists is beyond all calculation. 
Notwithstanding the immense loss of life and de- 
struction of property occasioned by the war, the 
volume left in circulation at its close gave such 
an impulse to industrial pursuits as were never 
before known in the history of our nation. 

Wealth flowed in upon the people as if by 
magic, debts were paid, and comforts and even 
elegances were begun to be enjoyed. Through 



288 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

the influence of the Senate, contraction began, 
and the tide was turned. As a result, the peo- 
ple are robbed and being impoverished, class dis- 
tinctions are built up, and corporate rule holds 
absolute sway. 

The Senate has neither sympathy nor respect 
for the people ; it is not elected by them, and feels 
under no obligations to them. This is justly in- 
ferred from the history of their action for the 
last twenty years. 

Thus equality is destroyed, liberty trampled 
under foot, justice ignored, and the dear, and 
long-cherished hopes and aspirations of the toil- 
ing millions overthrown. 

The executive department provided in the 
Federal Constitution is no less inimical to the lib- 
erties and happiness of the people. The vast 
powers conferred upon the chief executive 
enables him to turn this government into a des- 
potism without changing the Constitution or 
abandoning popular elections. He is the head 
and leader of the dominant political party, and 
the power and patronage vested in him enables 
him to exercise a power that few kings possess. 

" Section II. (Art. 2.) The President shall be 
the commander-in-chief of the army and navy of 
the United States, and of the militia of the several 
States when called into actual service of the United 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 289 

States. He may require, in writing, the opinion of 
the principal officers in each of the executive de- 
partments upon any subject relating to the duties 
of their respective offices, and he shall have power 
to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against 
the United States except in cases of impeachment. 

"2. He shall have power, by and with the con- 
sent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two- 
thirds of the Senate present concur ; and he shall 
nominate, and by and with the consent of the Sen- 
ate shall appoint, embassadors, other public minis- 
ters and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and 
all other officers of the United States whose ap- 
pointments are not herein otherwise provided for, 
and which shall be established by law ; but the 
Congress may by law vest the appointment of such 
inferior officers as they think proper in the Presi- 
dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of 
departments. 

" 3. The President shall have power to fill up all 
vacancies that may happen during the recess of the 
Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire 
at the end of their next session. 

" Sec. III. He shall from time to time give 
to Congress information of the state of the Union, 
and recommend for their consideration such 
measures as he shall judge necessary and ex- 
pedient ; he may on extraordinary occasions con- 
vene both Houses or either of them, and in case 
of disagreement between them with respect to 
the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them 
to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall re- 
ceive embassadors and other public ministers ; he 
shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, 
and shall commission all the officers of the United 
States." — United States Constitution. 

13 



290 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 

Section VII. , 2 (Article I.), clothes the Presi- 
dent with a negative power over the action of 
the Congress, of any majority less than two- 
thirds. 

These powers vested in the President are 
kingly prerogatives and derived from English 
law, modified by the pressure of public senti- 
ment at the time of the framing of the Federal 
Constitution and by the necessity to secure its 
ratification. 

The English monarch commands his armies, 
creates his courts, advises his Parliament, ap- 
points his embassadors, makes treaties, and par- 
dons state criminals. 

What a wonderful similarity ! The one, the 
head and representative of &free government and 
the other of a monarchy ! How obvious it is 
that this transformation of a popular government 
into a despotism of the vilest and most degrad- 
ing kind — not into a monarchy, where some 
respect is due to the subjects, but of an oli- 
garchy, whose sole and avowed purpose is domin- 
ion of all the wealth resources of the land. 

The corrupting influence and tyranny of the 
courts transferred from the English monarchy 
with no material change of character are by this 
Constitution foisted upon our government, a de- 
partment unnecessary in a government of equal- 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 291 

ity, intelligence, and justice. Could an estimate 
be made that would exhibit at one view the evils 
of our judiciary system, it would be appalling-. 
The tyranny of the courts, the defeat of justice, 
the immunity of the wealthy, the vexatious de- 
lays, and enormous expense are burdens too 
heavy for a free people to bear. 

The Federal Constitution allows members of 
Congress to fix their own compensation, while 
the people have to supply the treasury from 
which they draw their salaries. 

This is contrary to all business principles ; it 
should be determined by the people and incorpor- 
ated in their Constitution. 

The United States Constitution authorizes the 
disposition of the " territory and other property 
of the United States/ —(Art. IV., Sec. III.) 

This power to dispose of the public domain 
has been and is employed to build up giant 
monopolies, which override the liberties of the 
people and destroy their government. The idea 
that the public domain belongs to the govern- 
ment and not to the people is derived from the 
prevailing opinion that the sovereign is sole pro- 
prietor of the nation, and that the government is 
the sovereign. The people have been robbed of 
an area of one-third of the arable land of the 
country : the disastrous effects will be realized in 



292 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

years to come. It has laid the foundation for 
evils that may culminate in blood. Such reck* 
less disregard for justice and the public welfare 
is unparalleled in the history of modern govern- 
ments. The powers conferred by land monopoly 
have been discussed, and their evils in other 
countries should have served as a warning to our 
own ; but blind to every other consideration, cor- 
porate power has sought every means for its 
advancement, and the very foundation of all 
prosperity has been removed by the government 
transfer of the land of the people to the control 
of corporations. 

" It was and is the evident duty of the govern- 
ment," says R. T. Bland, " to prevent any mo- 
nopoly of the soil, and to hold the public lands 
to equal and free occupancy by the people for 
actual settlement. To give or to sell the lands 
in large bodies to individuals or corporations for 
speculative purposes is a manifest usurpation 
and injustice. It is a violation of the spirit of 
free government, and incompatible with the con- 
tinued existence of a republic. It is a direct step 
toward aristocracy and despotism." 

The results of vested power, and its exercise 
beyond the control of the people, are perfectly in 
accordance with the conclusions reached by logi- 
cal deductions. The temptations it affords to 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 293 

ambitious and unscrupulous men are too great ; 
and the facilities for their gratification are em- 
ployed for the overthrow of free government. 
The structure of our government offers opportu- 
nities for usurpation and robbery ; as one politi- 
cian was candid enough to say, " If the people 
put saddles on their backs and spurs on our heels, 
they might expect we would ride." The conse- 
quence is, the worst men came to the surface ; and 
a Franklin or a Jefferson could no more be elected 
to an office than a Christian priest could officiate at 
a Mussulman's altar. The idea of conferring 
titles of nobility upon citizens would excite honest 
indignation, but they are virtually conferred by 
corporate charters upon American citizens who 
excel English aristocracy in everything but vir- 
tue. These are the facts that confront us to-day ; 
these are the logical sequences of vested powers 
beyond the people's control, attracting the selfish, 
the unscrupulous and ambitious, and virtually 
inviting; them to take the reins of government 
in their own hands ; and they have accepted 
the invitation ; they have seized the opportunity 
offered them. What is the remedy? Recon- 
struction. Establish a government on the prin- 
ciples of the Declaration of Independence. 

It is worthy of remark how tenaciously the 
people hold to a mere name, and refuse to accept 



294 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

the facts made palpable by the evidence of their 
senses, and cling to a delusion because it is a 
pleasing one, and try to make themselves believe 
the delusion is a reality. 

The late Judge Black has given his testimony 
in regard to the political condition of our country, 
in the following unmistakable language : 

"The actual consequences resulting to the coun- 
try from the measures of the monopolists have not, 
I think, been truly represented or properly consid- 
ered. For many years past, all legislation has been 
partial to capitalists, and correspondingly injurious 
to the rights of land and labor. To what pernicious 
extent this system has been carried I need not say, 
for it is seen and known of all men. It cannot and 
will not come to good. Artificial regulations of 
that character never have, since the beginning of 
the world, had any effect but a bad one on the gen- 
eral condition of society that tried them. But the 
monopolists insist that they have changed the nature 
of things and enriched the masses of the people by 
the simple process of filching from them the fruits 
of their toil. They loudly cry out that the whole 
country is in a state of boundless prosperity. They 
get this brag inserted in political platforms when- 
ever they can, and thunder it from every stump on 
which they are permitted to speak. But it is false. 
They themselves are, indeed, superabundantly rich ; 
and invested, as they are, with the privilege of 
plundering their fellow-citizens, why should they 
not be rich? But for every millionaire they have 
made a thousand paupers. The relations between 
workmen and employers have never been so unsat- 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 295 

isfactory as now. Laborers are complaining every- 
where of inadequate wages ; and the complaint is 
true without doubt. The law ought to secure them 
a living rate of compensation ; but capital has got 
labor by the throat, and will not suffer anything 
done for its relief. 

"Agriculture is scarcely better off. The farmer 
who tills his own acres can make the barest living. 
The carrying trade of the world has passed from us 
into the hands of our great rival, simply because 
our preposterous legislation will not permit us to 
buy ships abroad, or build them at home without 
paying a tax on the material, which enhance their 
cost, and by reason of this — that is to say, carry it, 
or get it carried by the nearest way — we have lost 
what was or should be now the richest portion of 
our foreign commerce. Is all this loss and suffering 
of the industrious classes to be ignored? 

" If we estimate the prosperity of a country only 
by the overgrown fortunes of individuals especially 
favored by law, then Ireland is prosperous as well 
as America ; for there as here the legal machinery 
is in perfect order, which makes the rich richer, 
while it grinds the poor down into deeper poverty ; 
and there as here the lines of Goldsmith are ever 
true and ever wise : 

" ■ Hard fares the state, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.' " 

In formulating and framing a government, we 
must adopt the plan of nature. The entire do- 
main of natural phenomena is the necessary 
result of the operation of natural law ; whether 
it be in the domain of matter or mind, the law is 



296 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

as absolutely definite and determinate in the 
realm of mentality as that of matter. But sensu- 
ous perception has always preceded the deeper 
processes of the reasoning powers. The apparent 
always comes before the real, even in the realm 
of matter. Astrology preceded astronomy. For 
thousands of years the world was satisfied with 
the idea that the earth was flat, and that the sun, 
planets, and stars revolved around it. Alchemy 
was the intuitive vagaries that human genius has 
since developed into chemistry, and the dreams of 
transmutation indulged in by the alchemist are 
realized in the magical results of modern chem- 
istry. The forces that now move the machinery 
of the civilized world, until within a compara- 
tively recent period of time, were slumbering in 
the coal-beds, and only waited the power of gen- 
ius to evoke them. The electric force, that until 
recently only displayed itself in the lightning's 
flash and the thunder's roar, now meekly obeys 
the voice of man and becomes his most valuable 
servant. 

What is done in the realm of mechanical forces, 
that have added so much to the power of pro- 
duction and facility of communication, may soon 
be done in the realm of thought. The moral 
forces that move the social world, definite and 
determinate as they are, will be recognized and 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 297 

applied to the social and political world. As 
motion is the result of physical force, so emotion 
is the result of moral force. What gravitation 
and chemical affinity are to the physical world 
and justice to the moral world, so is desire to 
the social world. The laws of motion are so well 
understood that machinery is contrived and ar- 
ranged by which almost incalculable results are 
obtained. The laws of moral and social force 
must be equally comprehended and applied to 
obtain results of commensurate value. 

In the affairs of government, the natural laws 
of mind are ignored. Self-constituted authority 
and usurpation of power were the first steps to- 
ward the establishment of government. Edicts 
and mandates were the first laws. Resistance on 
the part of the governed was the next step. 
This resulted in a compromise between the 
" powers that be " and the subject of these 
powers. Under such a system of government, 
in the course of time there accumulated a vast 
amount of laws and usuages, sanctioned by cus- 
tom, in the form of edicts, decisions, opinions, 
speculations, and legislative enactments, classi- 
fied, systematized, theorized, and formulated ; 
and elevated into the dignity of a science by the 
ingenious commentaries of men of acknowledged 
13* 



298 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

ability, and accepted as the authority of govern- 
ment. 

The moral law of social relations is justice ; 
that of government is force. The first is the 
law of God; the second the law of man. The 
adjustment of man'a relations by the former will 
secure the full capacity of his happiness ; the 
adjustment by the latter, under the control of 
prevailing power, brings into existence in civil- 
ized nations the distinctions of high and low, 
rich and poor, bond and free. Force takes the 
place of justice. Immense wealth in few hands 
is drawn from labor by the power of man-made 
law. 

There is no more effectual way of establishing 
slavery of the most abject kind than by reduc- 
ing the people to poverty. Give to man every- 
thing else he may desire — health, liberty, learning, 
genius : poverty will make him the humblest 
and most submissive slave. Give him wealth, 
and he feels the aspirations and dignity of a man, 
because wealth enables him to develop, exercise, 
and enjoy the attributes that characterize him as 
a moral, intellectual, and social being. 

Impoverishment of tli3 people is the only 
mode of subjugation, and ignorance of human 
rights, however much impracticable knowledge 
and learned nonsense may prevail, is the means 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 299 

of subjugation. Legislation provides for it, and 
the " courts of law " secure it. Force and author- 
ity take the place of reason and justice. Greed 
and want, avarice and poverty, discontent and 
submission, are the somewhat paradoxical con- 
ditions of the people. Three words will express 
the remedy — justice to all ; and how to ob- 
tain that justice is the object of our present 
inquiry. 

With what has been said, the method may be 
readily inferred. Injustice inevitably brings 
misery. The whole intent of republican govern- 
ment is to secure justice. With it flow all the 
blessings of society and the benefits of govern- 
ment. 

How shall we secure it? 

1. Frame such a government as will secure 
the control of it to the governed. 

2. Provide for a fair and honest election of 
officers by a proportional system of representa- 
tion. 

3. Provide due qualification for citizenship by 
disregarding the distinction of sex, and securing 
adequate moral and intellectual cultivation. 

4. Let all power delegated to officers be re- 
turned at stated periods to the people by the 
expiration of their term of office. 

5. Let the burden of revenues be borne 



300 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

equally by all In proportion to their ability to 
bear it. 

6. Provide for a financial system by which 
exchanges are made equal, and a just distribu- 
tion of wealth is secured. 

7. Substitute a system of arbitration for the 
present " courts of law." In the adjustment 
of controversies, justice is all that is demanded. 
In any community where the conduct of men is 
expected to meet with approval, they certainly 
would be willing to abide by the decision of such 
men as they would select. The complications, 
intricacies, and subtleties of law are beyond the 
mental scope of the people, and when applied in 
the adjustment of controversies or causes at issue, 
by a class of experts who are specially trained 
in those complications, intricacies, and subtleties, 
the people are at their mercy ; and since this 
class officiate for the people, and shape and con- 
strue the laws of which they are sole creators 
and expounders, and even expounders of the 
meaning of Constitutions, the dependence of the 
people on them is that of absolute submission — a 
condition that every honest man should spurn 
with contempt and indignation. 

8. A system of national enterprise for travel, 
transportation, and communication, by which 
only the cost is paid, or if more, let it be applied 
as revenue. 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 301 

9. A system of education by which the citi- 
zens will be qualified for the discharge of all 
their duties, and thus secure a free government. 

These are the fundamental principles upon 
which a true republic may be established, the 
aim and end of which is the regulation and pro- 
tection of the people in the exercise of their 
natural rights ; and this exercise is the best and 
all that government can confer upon a people. 
It is for them to determine. It is only for them 
to understand to apply the remedy. It is impos- 
sible to conceive that men will take up arms and 
spend their lives and fortunes, not to maintain 
their rights, but to perpetuate a system that out- 
rages every principle of justice and destroys their 
liberty. 

The power to do this is in the people ; but that 
power must be concentrated. The power is in 
the knowledge of these immortal truths in the 
minds of the people and in their will to enforce 
them. 

"If, white there is yet time," says Henry 
George, " we turn to justice and obey her, if we 
trust liberty and follow her, the dangers that now 
threaten must disappear." The means for such 
reconstruction are still in our hands ; but intelli- 
gence, resolution, organization, are the necessary 
conditions for its successful accomplishment. Let 



302 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

the ballot, which is the force that now menaces 
our destruction, be turned to agencies for con- 
struction. Let wisdom guide and reason rule ; 
let unity give strength. 

With a government as here indicated, what a 
glorious achievement would be accomplished ! 

" With want destroyed ; with greed changed to 
noble passions ; with the fraternity that is born of 
equality taking the place of jealousy and fear that 
array men against each other ; with mental power 
loosened by conditions that give to the humblest 
comfort and leisure — and who shall measure the 
heights to which our civilization may soar? Words 
fail the thought! It is the golden age of which 
poets have sung and high-raised seers have told in 
metaphor. It is the glorious vision which has 
always haunted man with gleams of fitful splendor." 
— Henry George. 

Civilization, which has risen and declined in 
successive periods, may steadily pursue its up- 
ward course. It only needs the full and uninter- 
rupted play of the social forces, and the political 
appliances for their regulation and protection of 
their exercise, to reach a point in civilization 
never yet experienced in the history of the world. 
There is nothing extravagant or exaggerating in 
this view. 

When poverty is removed ; when avarice and 
greed no longer goad to cruelty and robbery, and 
the higher faculties assert their prerogative, then 



NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 303 

the " sword will be beaten into a plowshare, and 
the spear into a pruning-hook." 

Is not this worth striving for ? What nobler 
object could engage the attention of man? How 
earnestly and faithfully the patriot fathers strug- 
gled for this ! How bravely and lavishly they 
poured out their treasure and their blood ! And 
shall we, the sons and daughters of such noble 
sires, ignobly submit to what they so gloriously 
conquered ? 

" The true republic is not yet here; but her birth- 
struggles must soon begin. Already with the hope 
of her men's thoughts are stirring Not a republic 
of landlords and peasants, nor a republic of million- 
aires and tramps ; not a republic in which some are 
masters and some serve : but a republic of equal cit- 
izens, where competition becomes co-operation, and 
the interdependence of all gives true independence 
to each ; where moral progress goes hand in hand 
with intellectual progress, and material progress 
elevates and enfranchises even the poorest and 
weakest and lowliest." — Henry George, 



304 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

CHAPTER XX. 

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 

" Truth crushed to earth will rise again, 
The eternal years of God are hers ; 
"While Error writhing in her pain 
Dies amid her worshipers.'' 

The presentation of new thoughts, or even of 
old ones in new arrangement or application, ex- 
cites opposition and is generally resisted. We 
cherish our opinions with vigilant care. No dif- 
ference what they are or how we came by them : 
should they be assailed, we hasten with laudable 
zeal to defend them. Were they judiciously se- 
lected from the great field of thought and formed 
with special regard to truth and reason? We 
never knew how or when they were formed. We 
never questioned their soundness nor suspected 
their validity. But let a new idea, or a new appli- 
cation of an old one, be presented for acceptance, 
and forthwith there is " war in the camp." We 
approach it with the utmost caution ; we examine 
it with the utmost care ; we scrutinize it with 
the keenest adverse criticism ; and then — reject 
it. This is the most favorable consideration of 
its treatment. Too often we refuse it attention, 



DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 305 

and not seldom make war upon it because it is a 
new idea. 

There are several reasons for this. We love 
our opinions because — they are ours. They flow 
along the mental ruts without much exertion ; 
whereas, the acceptance of a new idea necessi- 
tates a mental effort. 

They belong to our sect or our party, and are 
therefore to be cherished. To adopt a new train 
of thought or of thought to new purposes re- 
quires moral courage — a quality of mind that 
cannot be overrated. Any change is not popu- 
lar. The advocacy of a new thought or a new 
arrangement of thought subjects one to the 
charge of being a "crank," an impracticable 
dreamer, an optimist, a socialist, a communist — 
scarecrows to deter investigation and keep the 
timid "in their proper places." 

It is along the line of religious, social, and 
political thought that the advance has been 
slowest — where passion is the most liable to ex- 
citement, where control of opinion is most 
available for despotism. 

And yet ideas are the potent agencies in 
the world. The idea of right to private opinion, 
originated by Martin Luther, broke down the 
walls of ecclesiastical tyranny and liberated mil- 
lions from the rule of popery. The idea of 



306 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

diurnal revolution changed the direction of 
thought into new channels, and explained the 
apparent motions of the heavenly bodies, and 
sent Columbus across the ocean to explore a new 
world. The idea of gravitation formulated as- 
tronomical science and gave to Newton undying 
fame. A new idea sent Franklin's kite into the 
clouds and revealed the identity of the light- 
ning's flash with that mysterious force that now 
binds the world of thought by the electric wire. 

These new ideas battled with persistent ener- 
gy against stolid conservatism ; and years of pre- 
cious time and precious treasure and more precious 
blood flowed along the path of progress as a sac- 
rifice to the god of " old opinion." And history 
is about to repeat itself in the advent of another 
new idea. The fitful gleam of victory won by 
this new idea a hundred years ago, and lost in 
the gloom of old conservatism, is about to burst 
forth in a new and steady light, whose splendor 
will envelope the civilized world, and bring joy 
and peace to its millions of struggling toilers. 

A careful study of the obstacles to be over- 
come in the advent of a new idea will give us 
some impression of the difficulties to be sur- 
mounted in the impending conflict. Happily, we 
have as the fruits of the Kevolutionary struggle 
the two essential elements of success in the strife 



DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 307 

left to us — the Declaration of Independence, the 
acknowledged charter of our liberties, and the 
ballot. These are conceded. They dispense 
with the necessity of compulsory force in an 
open conflict, and relegate the battle-ground to 
the domain of ideas. 

We are placed in a position to fight with brain 
and heart. This is the true method of warfare, 
its victories are permanent and valuable. Those 
of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and Xapoleon 
concentrate their lurid glare upon these illustri- 
ous warriors ; while those of Aristotle, Plato, 
Lycurgus, Gracchus, Kepler, Galileo, Columbus, 
Xewton, Jefferson, and a host of others whose 
weapons were ideas, have shed their light upon 
the world, and will continue to grow brighter 
during all the coming ages 

The condition of the people, arising from a 
multitude of opinions, causing distraction and 
disunion in their ranks, is the thing to be depre- 
cated. A small army of well-organized and 
thoroughly disciplined troops can easily defeat 
and put to rout a large army of disunited and 
demoralized soldiers. Their strength lies in their 
organization, and not in their numbers. And so 
it is in this political warfare : strength is as re- 
quisite and as dependent on organization and 
discipline, which in this case means education. 



308 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

We are now prepared to consider the difficul 
ties. They lie in the condition of the people, and 
not in the power of their oppressors. There is 
nothing in the way to permanent and complete 
victory that the people cannot overcome. The 
principles upon which it is founded are acknowl- 
edged and recognized. The intelligence and will 
of the people constitute the acknowledged power ; 
and the ballot, by which this power can be exer- 
cised, is in the acknowledged possession of the 
people. All that is needed is to exercise it. 
The man who would starve to death with his 
larder well supplied would be considered a fool 
or a lunatic. Our enemy's strength is our weak- 
ness, and our weakness is our disorganized, dis- 
tracted condition. As long* as we remain so, 
victory over us is easy and certain. We have a 
common cause, a common interest. We have a 
common enemy. He is vigilant, active, brave, art- 
ful, and far-seeing. He takes advantage of our pas- 
sions by exciting them on the eve of an election. 
He takes advantage of our vices in keeping their 
stimulants before us in the form of vile intoxi- 
cants. He takes advantage of our ignorance by 
concealing his real objects from view, and put- 
ting us upon a false scent. He swindles us out 
of true representation by electing — or rather 
make us elect for him — his own tools ; or should 



DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 309 

by chance an honest man be elected, he manages 
to silence him in some way. He concentrates 
and masses us in nearly equally balanced array, 
one portion of us against the other, to do his 
bidding. 

It is to be acknowledged that these achieve- 
ments require cunning, vigilance, energy, perfect 
organization, and untiring zeal. The difficulty 
lies in our prejudices, lack of confidence in each 
other and in ourselves, in our political bias and 
party zeal, in our want and the fear of poverty, 
in the contemplation of the enemy's strength, in 
his wealth and political power, in our own cupid- 
ity and selfishness, and the discouragement of the 
failures of our favorite plans. It lies in the force 
of custom, submission to authority, the pressure 
of immediate and pressing demands, and in the 
inability to provide for them while organizing the 
elements necessary to the defeat of the enemy. 

The apathy, indifference, and neglect arising 
from these conditions are difficult to overcome. 
The people are strangers to each other. The 
expense and time necessary for assembling and 
intermino-lino; for counsel are not at their com- 
mand. They depend on the press for informa- 
tion, which is sure to ignore all intelligence 
necessary for the improvement of their condition, 
and it is difficult to establish a system of jour- 



310 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 

nalisrn by which the necessary communication 
can be secured. 

Can these difficulties he overcome with the 
means at the people's command ? 

This is the question pregnant with the most 
vital issues of the age. They must be overcome. 
The spirit of Napoleon's question must be in our 
question — "Is the passage through the moun- 
tain pass possible ? " asked he of the guide. " It 
is impracticable," was the reply. " Is it possi- 
ble ? " demanded the warrior, in a stentorian 
voice. This is the question the people must put, 
and in the earnestness in which it was put in 
the midst of Alpine snows. And, like Napoleon, 
they will turn the impracticable into the possible 
and achieve a victory. 

It is possible ; and as soon as this fact is real- 
ized, victory is sure to follow. 

Shall the great mass of the American people 
be consigned to servile submission to a few rob- 
ber-chiefs because of their superior knowledge, 
energy, and skill in concentrating and directing 
their forces ? Shall the few prey upon and im- 
poverish the many, while it is conceded that the 
power of government is derived from the con- 
sent of the governed? Shall despotism rule 
while the people hold the ballot ? Shall treason 
triumph over liberty and justice be handcuffed 
by greed? 



DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 311 

The thought that these questions are perti- 
nent, or can even be suggested with a hundred 
years of schooling in government, is humiliating, 
and calculated to excite alarm in the minds of 
every lover of liberty. 

A change in public opinion is rapidly going 
on, and when it reaches the point requisite for 
action, then action will come. At present the 
most advanced reform political party sees noth- 
ing and proposes nothing that promises perma- 
nent relief from the evils they suffer. 

Reduction in freights and fares, advance in 
wages and reduction in the price of articles of 
consumption, lower rates of interest and more 
liberal terms in rent, are now demanded; the 
compliance to which would satisfy the people. 
They ask mitigation, and mitigation is compro- 
mise. To compromise with robbers and usurpers 
is to acknowledge the right to rob and usurp. 

"It is best that the truth be fully stated and 
clearly recognized. He who sees the truth let him 
proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is 
against it. This is not radicalism in the bad sense 
which so many attach to the word. It is conserva- 
tism in the true sense." — Henry George. 

A people who clearly comprehend their rights, 
who appreciate their value, and are able to real- 
ize the blessings their full exercise would confer, 



312 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

would lose no time in providing the means for 
their enjoyment. As long as the people think 
the theory of their government is right, there is 
no possibility of a change. 

We claim the right not only to choose our ser- 
vants to perform prescribed duties, and to hold 
them responsible, but to alter, amend, or abolish 
the Constitution, and frame one to our liking if 
we think it necessary ; yet we go on repeating 
the farce over and over, suffer defeat in all meas- 
ures of redress in legislatures and courts, while 
oligarchies and petty aristocracies multiply and 
grow stronger year by year. Every effort the 
people make in their behalf is in some way foiled 
and a new advantage for corporate interest 
gained. To see this and realize it is the first 
step. Thought will thereby be aroused, investi- 
gation succeed, intelligence develop ; organiza- 
tion will follow, and a power that will wrest 
from the hand of greed the people's wealth, and 
convert the machinations of political chicanery 
into an honest government. 

No one can compute the evils of war. In the 
work of building up a true republic there is no 
necessity for it. The battle-field is the brain 
and heart, knd the weapons ideas propelled by 
the love of justice, equality, and liberty. The 
victory won upon this field will be lasting, benefi- 
cent, glorious. 



SUMMARY. 313 

CHAPTER XXI. 

SUMMARY. 

." Is it right, is it fair, 

That we perish of despair, 
In this land, on this soil, 

Where our destiny is set, 
Which we cultured with our toil 

And watered with our sweat ? 
We have plowed, we have sown, 
But the crop is not our own ; 
We have reaped, but harpy hands 
Swept the harvest from our lands." 

From what has been written, we are able to 
obtain some idea of what a republican govern- 
ment should be. Its object is to secure the full- 
est and freest exercise of the natural rights of the 
citizen consistent with good government. These 
rights have been considered, and the means for 
their exercise somewhat discussed. 

The bounties of nature so generously bestowed 
by our Creator are to be secured alike to all his 
children. Land is the primary source of all the 
means of life. The first consideration is a just 
method by which a just portion is secured to all 
who desire to occupy and use it — or, rather, the 
necessity of such occupancy and use ; the mode 
is to be prescribed by law. 
14 



314 THE NEW REPUBLIC . 

Those who control the land, and can fix the 
terms of occupation, hold a power over the occu- 
pants. He who controls the means of life con- 
trols life itself. Since land is the primary source 
of the means of life, and is controlled in large 
quantities by few individuals, we can easily per- 
ceive the evils of land monopoly. The necessity 
of removing this evil is apparent to all. A true 
republic cannot exist with our present laws of 
land tenure. 

Now what is the duty of the citizen ? Some 
means must be adopted by which the natural 
rights of the people to the land are secured ; and 
this right transcends in importance all others. 
What that method is must be determined by the 
people. 

A medium of exchange is of next importance. 
The false teachings designedly set up by those 
interested in controlling the currency have en- 
abled them to so mystify the public mind as to 
secure such control. 

The necessity of a clear and comprehensive 
understanding of money, its nature and func- 
tions, is so obvious that no one can fail to see it. 
The equal exchange of values would prevent 
their accumulation in the hands of those who 
control the volume of circulation. In this con- 
sists the evil. The effectual method by which 



SUMMARY. 315 

this is done is to make gold and silver the basis. 
So long as this idea prevails, therg is no hope for 
a system of finance that will secure all the bene- 
fits of money to the people, and enable them to 
avoid the evils that arise from it. With the con- 
trol of the volume of currency in the hands of 
the few, and for their benefit, a republic cannot 
exist. 

The history of our government is ample proof 
of this. The moneyed corporations and capital- 
ists hold absolute control over the industries of 
the country : labor and its products, and con- 
sequently the laborer and producer, are dependent 
on those who control the money of the country. 
This creates distinctions between the many and 
the few : the many toil and suffer ; the few are 
clothed in "purple and fine linen, and fare 
sumptuously every day." 

This distinction creates aristocracies, and aris- 
tocracies cannot exist in a republic. Therefore, 
a system of finance that will meet the demands 
of the people in effecting an equal exchange and 
distribution of values is an imperative necessity. 

Regulation of transportation and travel, that 
will secure all their benefits to the people at 
actual cost, is an equal necessity. The history of 
transportation in this country demonstrates the 
fact that vast wealth is accumulated by corpora- 



316 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

tions that control transportation and travel at 
the expense of the people. The rights of the 
people must be secured in the best modes and 
cheapest rates before a true republic can exist. 

Telegraphic communication should constitute 
part of the postal system, thus increasing the 
facilities for the spread of intelligence. So far, 
this important and valuable agent is controlled, 
and the people are made dependent on those who 
control it, not only for intelligence, but for what 
intelligence they receive — often false, and always 
such as serves the purposes of the managers. 
Therefore, the telegraph system must be made 
to serve the people's interests. This is essential 
to the existence of republican government. 

The revenues of the government must be pro- 
vided by a tax on property and not on labor. 
The burden would then be borne equally by all 
in proportion to their ability to bear it. The his- 
tory of our revenue system shows the gross in- 
justice of it by imposing an undue burden on the 
laboring classes and protecting capitalists, and 
by destroying one of the most important and val- 
uable industries of the country — marine com- 
merce. This condition is incompatible with a 
government wherein equal rights to all are to be 
exercised and enjoyed by all. 

The co-existence of natural rights and corpor- 



SUMMARY. 317 

ate power is impossible in a true republic, for 
corporate power is the usurpation of natural 
rights. Corporations have become the agents 
by which all political and industrial powers are 
exercised — in the interests of corporations. The 
exercise of corporate power vested by law and 
sustained by the courts has obtained such con- 
trol over land, over money, over transportation, 
and all popular interests, that the people are 
made dependent on them, and are compelled to 
submit to their dictation. The history of our 
country proves this also. Therefore, corporations 
for private gain and individual aggrandizement 
are at war with the true interests of a republic. 

An elective system by which proportional 
representation can be secured is an indispensable 
requirement of a true republic. In the election 
of legislators or any other body of men clothed 
with specific powers, as many citizens as possible 
should be represented. As our election laws 
now exist, it can be shown that a very small mi- 
nority of the people may elect. The system of 
conventions for nominating candidates are con- 
trolled in the interests of corporations, and their 
agents and elections are but the ratification of 
some one whose manipulators are more skillful 
or can command more " influence." 

Our legislative system, consisting of two 



318 THE NEW RErUBLIC. 

branches, is inconsistent with popular representa- 
tion. It renders legislation difficult and dilatory, 
and offers ample opportunity for defeating the 
people's will and securing class interests. It is 
useless, cumbersome, dilatory, and open to cor- 
ruption and destructive to republican govern- 
ment. 

The appointing and veto power are kingly pre- 
rogatives and a usurpation of natural rights. 
The office of commander-in-chief of all the mili- 
tary and naval forces of the nation is another. 
The appointing power brings to his support a 
class of men who by their dependence and sense 
of obligation for their place feel bound to serve 
their master. His veto power enables him to 
defeat national legislation, measured by a major- 
ity verging on two-thirds of both branches. 
His military authority gives him immense pres- 
tige and power, which he may exercise at his 
discretion. 

A judiciary system is in existence in our gov- 
ernment that is the source of a vast amount of 
corruption and fraud, and bears heavily upon the 
people. Predicated on the authority of law, it 
only aims to deal with law and the precedents 
established by decisions of courts, some of which 
were made more than a hundred years ago ! 
Strange that men of mature minds and experience 



SUMMARY. 319 

should be compelled to go back a hundred years 
and search among the musty volumes of judicial 
decisions to determine a case in which the parties 
to it demand simple justice ! The whole system 
is defended and supported, not for the sake of 
justice, but because it is a source of vast revenue 
and power to a class of men trained in the ab- 
struse subtleties of th'e law — not a necessary, 
but an unnecessary, evil ; for it has been shown 
that a systeui of adjudication in which justice 
can be secured independent of u law courts," 
and the paraphernalia, expense, delay, appeal, 
vexation, and uncertainty of trials at law, is in- 
compatible with a republican government. 

Courts profess not only to administer the law, 
but to interpret the law, and although the law- 
making power is declared to be supreme, the 
court declares this or that law null and void by 
its own authority. The courts which often set 
aside equitable cases should themselves be set 
aside, and the more simple, speedy, direct, and 
less expensive system of arbitration be substi- 
tuted. Instead of justice, we have law; instead 
of reason, we have authority. An eminent law- 
yer has given his testimony : 

"Tt has been the custom from time immemorial 
for courts to be governed and controlled by prece- 
dents. This is adopted in order that the law may 



320 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

be settled and certain. When questions arise un- 
der the statutes, the meaning of which is ambigu- 
ous, resort is had to former decisions under like 
statutes for a rule of construction, and thus the law 
is settled. We accept the decision as the law, and 
to criticise it is deemed discourteous to the court 
making it. To call in question the motives of the 
courts or to doubt their wisdom is deemed rank 
treason. The rule governing them may be of an- 
cient date; the reason for its adoption may have 
long ceased; the rule itself may be obsolete. 
.... Most of these old precedents originated in 
monarchical countries where all doubtful questions 
were construed in favor of the crown, and where 
the rights of the people always yielded to kingly 
prerogative The practice of solving consti- 
tutional problems by resort to old monarchical pre- 
cedents, and the adoption of the reasoning of the 
high courts of the king's exchequer, should not be 
tolerated in a republic. Our courts should be 
courts of the people, and not a star-chamber for the 
protection and perpetration of the monarchical dog- 
ma that ' it is absolutely necessary to independent 
national existence that the government should have 
a firm hold on the two great sovereign instrumen- 
talities of the sword and the purse,' as was declared 
by the Supreme Court of the United States in De- 
cember, 1871. Such declarations are at war with our 
ideas of republican government. It has no support, 
save in desj30tic governments and decisions emanat- 
ing from them ; yet it is the doctrine that must ob- 
tain if the recent decisions of the Supreme Court are 
to remain as the settled law of the nation. To accept 
this doctrine as the final exposition of the relative 
rights of the people and the government is to ac- 
knowledge that the agents and servants of the peo- 



SUMMARY. 321 

pie, elected and appointed to office, become their 
masters, clothed with imperial power." — D. C. 
Cloud. 

The Supreme Court declares what is law and 
what is not law, what is constitutional and what 
is not. It administers the law or not in accord- 
ance with its supreme pleasure. It is not respon- 
sible to the people ; it is the supreme autocrat. 

There could not have been devised a more 
successful and effectual method of defeating jus- 
tice, and giving full scope and free play to legal 
minds, than the jury system. The less a man 
knows, the better qualified he is for a juror. If 
he reads the news and forms an opinion, he can- 
not serve. Integrity and intelligence tell against 
him. Men unaccustomed to continuous thought 
and logical processes are kept for hours, and 
sometimes for days, exposed to the pitiless storm 
of contentious wrangling and intricate sophis- 
tries, become so wearied and confused that they 
are unable to put two ideas in logical order. 
What chance for justice, when with confused and 
exhausted minds they retire for deliberation, to 
grapple with the abstruse subtleties of the law, 
and the contending arguments of the opposing 
counsel? One juryman, more wise or more ob- 
stinate, offsets the eleven, and the case goes back 
to the court to repeat the farce. 
14* 



322 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

Besides, men are taken from their business, 
and kept for days in the custody of the court for 
the purpose of determining whether they are 
stupid enough for first-class jurymen. Custom 
has fortified the practice, and the people think 
they must submit. 

Thus the people suffer and are robbed accord- 
ing to law ; they support an army of men skilled 
in legal legerdemain, who produce nothing but 
evil, according to law. 

Education, which involves the very existence 
of a republic, has proved insufficient and inade- 
quate to the high and important offices it is de- 
signed to perform. With hundreds of millions 
of dollars expended in its support, and the great 
expectations the people have cherished, how little 
real service it has rendered ! Years of the most 
precious period of life are wasted in the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge never called into use ; while 
other knowledge, waiting the opportunity of the 
master to impart, and which the imperative 
necessities of life demand, is not even dreamed of 
by the educators of the land. The principles of 
political science, the very basis of society and 
government, are unknown to the educational cur- 
riculum, indispensable to popular government ; 
it should be the great central idea of popular 
education. The necessity of qualification for 



SUMMARY. 323 

citizenship has been shown. Let it be realized 
in its full force. 

This brief enumeration of objections, fatal to a 
true republic, will indicate the plan and outline of 
such a government as was contemplated by the 
patriot fathers, and which was partially set in 
operation* for a brief period. 

The claim of equal natural rights made sacred 
and inalienable by divine endowment, and the 
right to organize and establish a government to 
secure their free exercise, asserted and main- 
tained in defiance of the despotism of the Old 
World, was heroic, grand, and sublime. After 
a hundred years of experience in an ineffectual 
struggle to support a republican government, 
and with the aid advancing knowledge and the 
history of other governments as lights and warn- 
nings, the people should be able to frame a gov- 
ernment that will be a republic in fact as well as 
in name. 

It is expected, as a matter of course, that the 
people, fully sensible of their great wrongs, and 
of the rights they hold by divine inheritance, and 
appreciating the means and opportunities at 
their disposal, will proceed without delay, and 
show to the world that they have rights and are 
able to maintain them. 

When we think of what might be, what the 



324 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 

almost infinite capacity for improvement, for 
human culture, for happiness ; when we think of 
the plenitude of wealth that might be produced, 
of the freedom we might enjoy, with the appli- 
ances of all these already at our hands ; when 
we think of the beautiful, elegant homes, and 
their smiling, happy inmates ; when we think how 
poor, how pitiful, how little better than barbar- 
ism, is this land of civilization, with its teeming 
millions toiling with calloused hands, with 
bended backs, and stiffened joints : if we could 
realize their cares and anxieties, their want and 
fear of want, and their struggles with pov- 
erty and debt ; if we could at once set this 
picture and that side by side — what feelings 
of regret and indignation would fill the soul ! 
Yet these pictures are not overdrawn. 

This is a broad and rich land. A beneficent 
Father has endowed it with inexhaustible nat- 
ural resources, and his children with unmeas- 
ured capacities and possibilities, and yet we 
groan with burdens heaped upon us by those 
who are in theory our equals, but in reality ten 
thousand times stronger, because we have bowed 
down to the authority of laws enacted for the ex- 
press purpose of taking our power unto them- 
selves. 

In our senseless zeal for party, we have 



SUMMARY. 325 

placed in power men who have sought their 
places with the sole intent of betraying us, and 
then reap for themselves a reward for their 
treachery ! We have done this repeatedly. We 
have a hundred years' experience, and that of 
other nations for thousands of years, yet we 
struggle in the toils of error, succumb to the 
weakness of ignorance, and flounder in the sea of 
political empiricism ! We go back more than a 
hundred years and search amid the vague specu- 
lations of monarchists for light to guide us in 
framing and supporting republican institutions ! 

With righteous indignation and heroic energy 
w r e strip off the robes of royalty, and in a few 
short years we don them in the name of liberty. 
We hurl with contempt the insignia of nobility 
and its supporters, primogeniture and entail from 
the pages of our fundamental law, and forthwith 
endow the same instrument with the purple and 
fine linen of corporate powder. With British 
common law, British courts, British finance, 
British legislation, and British executive prerog- 
atives transferred to American soil, we vainly 
imagine w r e are living in a republic. 

May this delusion be swept away ; may we be 
enabled to behold our condition as it is; and then 
with one heart and with one intent stand forth 
resolved to be free. 



326 THE NEW* REPUBLIC. 

To do this, we must demand amendments to 
the Constitution by which the natural and in- 
alienable rights of the people will be secured in 
their free and full exercise. These rights are 
divinely endowed ; they are guaranteed by the 
Declaration of Independence ; they were con- 
ceived in the highest and holiest aspirations of 
the human soul, and brought forth amid the din 
of battle and the flow of blood — " that when- 
ever ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES 
DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, .... TO SE- 
CURE THE RIGHTS OF THE GOVERNED, .... IT 
IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR 
ABOLISH IT, AND TO INSTITUTE A NEW GOVERN- 
MENT, LAYING ITS FOUNDATION ON SUCH PRIN- 
CIPLES AND ORGANIZING ITS POWERS IN SUCH 
FORM AS TO THEM SHALL SEEM MOST LIKELY 
TO EFFECT THEIR SAFETY AND HAPPINESS." 



SYNOPSIS 



THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



DEFINITION. 



Popular government is a national association 
in which all its citizens are recognized as possess- 
ing equal rights, privileges, and opportunities. 

The term "popular government" means a "govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, for the people "; 
that is, one in which the will of the people is fairly 
and properly expressed and exercised. 

POWER. 

The power of such a government is derived 
" from the consent of the governed." 

There are essentially two forms of government : 
in the one, the power is assumed or usurped, and 
is vested in one or more persons who claim the 
right to rule ; such government is a monarchy, 
usually in some modified form, an aristocracy, or a 
confederation of petty aristocracies, constituting 
an oligarchy. In the other, the power, emanating 



323 synopsis. 

from the people by virtue of their natural rights, is 
delegated to representatives to execute the people's 
will ; this form of government is a republic. In 
the former, it is permission by or submission to 
usurped powers ; in the latter, it is consent which 
implies volition, will, by the governed. Since voli- 
tion means freedom of action, a government deriv- 
ing its power from the consent of the governed 
must be a free government. 

PURPOSE. 

The object of popular government is the regu- 
lation and protection of all its citizens in the full 
and free exercise of their natural rights and op- 
portunities. 

In monarchies and aristocracies, the purpose of 
government is the aggrandizement of those who 
govern at the expense of the governed ; in a popu- 
lar government all the benefits go to the governed. 
It follows, as an inevitable conclusion, that if c< all 
men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights " — all 
must be equal beneficiaries in any scheme of gov- 
ernment instituted " to secure these rights." 

CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR ITS EXISTENCE. 

Popular government can only exist when there 

is intelligence in its citizens to comprehend the 

principles upon which it is based, and virtue to 

appreciate the rights upon which it is founded. 

No duty can be properly performed without due 
qualification of those upon whom such duty de- 



synopsis. 329 

volves. No one would intrust another with any- 
kind of work or business, unless he was satisfied as 
to the qualification of the person so intrusted for 
that work or business ; for no one could succeed 
in any enterprise or business without the proper 
knowledge and skill. No one can intrust another 
unless he himself understands the work to be per- 
formed, with any prospect of success. If the em- 
ployer be ignorant, he is dependent on the employee 
and at his mercy. Designing knaves seek such em- 
ployers because they can take advantage of them. 
In popular government the people are the employ- 
ers and their only safeguard is their intelligence. 

Not only is intelligence necessary, but the ability 
to appreciate the value of human rights is essential 
to their preservation and enjoyment. The love of 
justice must be supreme ; for justice is to the men- 
tal what gravitation is to the physical world — the 
great regulator of the equilibrium of values, as 
gravity is that of forces. If values are duly appre- 
ciated, they are secured and utilized ; if not, they 
cannot be. Therefore, there must be such love of 
justice in the people that any violation of it would 
be deemed sacrilege. 

The value of these rights is equal to life itself ; 
and life is valuable only so far as they are exercised 
and utilized. Hence, the conditions necessary to 
the existence and maintenance of a popular govern- 
ment must depend on the intelligence and virtue of 
its citizens. 

ENUMERATION AND DEFINITION OF RIGHTS. 

I. The right to live ; that is, to the free and 
unrestrained activity of all the physical powers 
and mental faculties of the individual in the le- 
gitimate pursuits of life. 



330 SYNOPSIS. 

This is personal freedom, without which no one 
can truly be said to live ; namely, to carry out all 
the purposes of life; although he may in a certain 
sense be said to exist. 

II. The means of life, which consist in — 
(1.) The possession and free use of all the 
natural elements of wealth — God's free gifts to 
man— sunlight, air, water, and the natural prod- 
ucts in it, and land with its natural productions, 
as minerals, metals, forests, and wild animals and 
fruits. 

Since these natural means of wealth are produced 
by no man, they belong to no man ; but as " God 
is no respecter of persons," they belong to all 
equally alike. They are sources of supply for man's 
consumption, and as all equally need the supply for 
consumption, all are equally entitled to the means 
for obtaining the supply for consumption. 

Sunlight is the great vivifying principle of the 
earth : all life and organization depend upon it. 

Air is so essential to life that were one compelled 
to walk two hundred yards to reach it, he would 
perish in the attempt. Hence it envelopes the 
whole earth, and presses into every nook and cor- 
ner where life exists. 

Water enters into every structure of organized 
beings, and of most of them constitutes the 
greater part. It is the great fertilizer of the soil, 
and an essential supporter of life. 

Land is the source of the means of life, and those 
who control it control the means of life. In densely 
populated countries, this condition is fully realized. 
In our country the possession and control of vast 



synopsis. 331 

tracts of land are rapidly passing into the hands of a 
few. As population increased, the area of our coun- 
try expanded and the pressure was not felt ; but 
its limits are now nearly reached, population is 
flowing in and increasing among us, and the time 
is not far distant, when, by accumulation in large 
tracts in the hands of the few and increase of popu- 
lation, there is nothing to prevent the poverty and 
enslavement of the many by the few. 

(2.) (a.) The use and benefits of the forces 
evolved by the expansive power of heat and 
other means for the evolution of f orce^ 

The law by which force is evolved is God's law, 
and the benefits derived from it belong alike to all 
his children. The value of these forces may be es- 
timated by the consideration of the fact that the 
evolution of force is only limited by the demand 
for it in the propulsion of machinery, and that 
in the power of steam alone more force is 
evolved than is equal to the united muscular force 
of manual labor. 

(6.) The benefits arising from the disturb- 
ance of static conditions by electric and magnetic 
agencies, by which messages are conveyed in- 
stantaneously for thousands of miles ; and other 
uses for man's progress and improvement. 

In the present state of the civilization of the 
world, these agencies are indispensable, and their 
value is beyond computation, and all are equally 
entitled to their benefits. 

(c.) The advantages of the reception and dis- 
tribution of force by mechanical contrivances. 



332 synopsis. 

By means of labor-saving machinery, the product- 
ive power of wealth has been increased tenfold. 
This increase in the facility for the production of 
values belongs to all, because it is obtained by 
natural law, which is God's law. The inventor 
should be compensated, not for the value of his in- 
vention, but for the time, labor, and expense em- 
ployed in his work. 

(3.) The issue and control of a medium of cir- 
culation for the exchange of values. 

Money is simply a device for the exchange of 
commodities, and its authority is derived from law, 
that is, the mutual agreement of all in the govern- 
ment to accept as a token of value some device 
upon which value is expressed in the unit or units 
of value, in exchange for a value in some commod- 
ity or service rendered. 

By this contrivance, values to any amount may 
be conveyed at any time and to any place within 
the jurisdiction of the government, and converted 
(in common parlance) into anything within the 
circle of exchange, at the option of the holder. So 
valuable is this device that it has become a neces- 
sity of civilization, and is monopolized for the pur- 
poses of gain. Since this comes by the authority of 
the people, it belongs to them, and their right to 
all its benefits is as clear as that to exchange values. 

(4.) The best and cheapest methods for travel, 

transportation, and lines of communication for 

intelligence. 

This right is as clear as the necessity for it. If 
people have the right to travel and transport the 
products of their labor, they have a right to the 



synopsis. 333 

best facilities at a just cost for the service ; and 
this implies the right to control all modes of transit 
and travel, and communicating lines. 

(5.) The full and unrestricted use and enjoy- 
ment of all the products of the labor of each 
individual, or their full equivalent in other prod- 
ucts by equal exchange. 

The unequal distribution of wealth by the 
monopoly of land and by an unjust monetary sys- 
tem is one of the direct and most effective means 
by which labor is robbed and the wealth-producer 
made dependent on the landlords and money- 
dealers. 

(6.) The education of the people, and due prep- 
aration for the duties of life, in the highest de- 
gree of intellectual, moral, aesthetic, and spiritual 
culture; in the preservation of health, and in 
the enjoyment of social and domestic life. 

DECLARATION. 

We hold that the above-enumerated rights 
belong by divine inheritence to all men: they 
are therefore sacred ; by virtue of their divine 
origin they are inalienable : therefore, the depri- 
vation of them by force or fraud is a crime ; 
" that to secure these rights, governments are in- 
stituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; that when- 
ever any form of government becomes destruc- 



334 synopsis. 

tive of these ends, it is the right of the people to 
altar or abolish it, and to institute a new govern- 
ment, laying its foundations on such principles 
and organizing its powers in such form as to 
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety 
and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate 
that government long established should not be 
changed for light and transient causes ; and ac- 
cordingly, all experience hath shown that man- 
kind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are 
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing 
the forms to which they are accustomed. But 
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a de- 
sign to reduce them under absolute despotism, it 

IS THEIR RIGHT, IT IS THEIR DUTY, TO THROW 
OFF SUCH GOVERNMENT AND TO PROVIDE NEW 
GUARDS FOR THEIR FUTURE SECURITY." 

TO SECURE AND ENJOY THESE RIGHTS, 

A radical reconstruction of the Constitution of 
our existing government is necessary in abrogat- 
ing— 

I. (1.) All vested powers whereby public 
service is performed, beyond the control of the 
people. 

Powers vetted beyond the control of the people 
is a surrender of their natural rights, and must ne- 



synopsis. 335 

cessarily prove fatal to popular government so long 
as ambitious and designing men seek such powers 
in order to exercise them for their own aggrandize- 
ment. It is not necessary to say that such is the 
fact in our government ; it is only necessary to 
state it. 

All political power should be delegated, not 
vested, and return to the people by the expiration 
of the term of office. 

By authority of the Federal Constitution, powers 
are vested beyond control and exercised by design- 
ing men who have sought these opportunities for 
self-aggrandizement ; whence arise the evils of gov- 
ernment, and not from the natural dishonesty of 
men. While men are ruled by selfishness and our 
present system of government exists, a better polit- 
ical condition is impossible ; for men will take all 
they seek. The tendency is towards a worse con- 
dition. Reform must come from the people and 
through a reconstruction of the government in the 
change of their organic law. 

(2.) The power vested in public officers to 
appoint others to public service who are responsi- 
ble to the people for their acts. 

The relation between the employer and the em- 
ployee must be direct, since the latter is always 
responsible to the former. 

All the evils of our civil service have arisen by 
the abuse of power in those who aim to please their 
patron, rather than the people whom they are re- 
quired to serve. 

(3.) All powers and rights vested in individ- 
uals in a corporate capacity, for individual enter- 
prise. 



336 synopsis. 

The title of nobility and " bill of attainder " are 
prohibited in the Constitution of the United States, 
but the power for evil thus sought to be averted 
is more than supplied by the power in our govern- 
ment to charter corporations. By means of these, 
capital is aggregated and associated, by means of 
which powers are created that have grown to such 
an extent that all the departments of the govern- 
ment have succumbed to their baleful influence. 
They have consolidated and made common cause 
against the rights and interests of the wealth-pro- 
ducers and wage-earners, and thus the wealth of 
the nation is largely in the possession and con- 
trol of a very small number of its citizens. This 
state of affairs is absolutely incompatible with pop- 
ular government ; class distinctions are built up, 
which render equality of citizenship impossible. 

(4.) The senatorial department in all legisla- 
tive bodies. 

The excuse for this department in the federal 
legislature is, that the States must be equally rep- 
resented in the national legislature. There is no 
interest that can affect one State more than another, 
since their interests are identical throughout. The 
national sovereignty is to be preserved and main- 
tained, and all the States are alike interested in 
that. Since they are the equal members of one 
body, what affects one would affect the others in 
the same way. Measures for defense, for revenue, 
for the election of federal officers, foreign relations, 
issue of a circulating medium, regulation of weights 
and measures, postal and other public service, In- 
dian affairs, etc., concern one State as much as an- 
other ; and as all the States are represented in the 
popular branch, the aristocratic branch has no right 



synopsis. 337 

or excuse to exist. State Senates do not have even 
this excuse. 

(5.) Our entire judiciary system, wherein 
justice is ignored, immoralities and crimes are 
encouraged and instigated, as misrepresentation, 
falsehood, fraudulent transactions, forgery, per- 
jury, and subornation, provoked by the strife of 
contending litigants, and the cupidity of attor- 
neys who resort to quibbles, technicalities, com- 
plications in pleading, looseness and license in 
the construction and interpretation of law, delays 
and appeals, by which villainy is rewarded, and 
thousands upon thousands of honest citizens are 
defrauded and ruined ; and a vast army of non- 
producers lives in wealth and luxury at the ex- 
pense of the wealth-producers ; being a class of 
disciplined and skilled experts, trained in the 
specialties and intricacies of a subtle craft, who 
provoke and encourage litigation, sell their ser- 
vices to known and notorious criminals, and 
greedy, unscrupulous corporations in their 
schemes of robbery and plunder by legislative 
means, and through the instrumentalities of the 
courts of law. 

The abrogation of this department of our gov- 
ernment would remove a vast burden from the peo- 
ple in the way of expense, and a fearful source of 
corruption and crime and a baleful influence on the 
morals of the community. The tendency to the com- 
15 



338 synopsis. 

mission of crime is increased by the well-known 
fact that any one who can command money enjoys 
immunities denied to others. 

II. The second measure essential in the sup- 
port of popular government is the repeal of all 
existing laws of — 

(1.) Land tenures by which thousands and 
and even millions of acres of land are held and 
controlled by single individuals and corporations, 
and used by means of wage-labor, or for rent, or 
held for speculation for the accumulation of 
wealth. 

By the power vested in Congress by the Federal 
Constitution in disposing of the public domain, 
an area of land equal to fourteen States of the 
Union has been granted to railway corporations. 
Foreign capitalists have purchased for a mere nom- 
inal price millions of acres from which they expect 
to realize immense profits at the expense of their 
fellow-men. By these vested powers — in Congress 
for the disposal of the public domain in vast tracts 
and the power permitting the grant of charters to 
corporations — the people have been robbed of this 
vast amount of land, sufficient to subsist a popula- 
tion of thirty millions, already held by them. At 
the same time, millions of American citizens are 
homeless and struggling in hopeless poverty. With 
the horrors of Irish tenantry as an example, we 
still persist in tolerating a like system with only a 
feeble protest. 

(2.) By which the national finances are con- 
trolled for private gain ; banking corporations 



synopsis. 339 

conducted in the issue of their private notes as a 
circulating medium, demanding interest on their 
own debts, and receiving it on the capital they 
invest, and on deposits, which is other peoples' 
money ; and by which a national debt has been 
created, and from which a vast income is realized 
to the holders of government bonds. 

By these laws, the volume of the circulating me- 
dium is controlled in the interests of the money 
power and manipulated by the government at their 
command. 

Laws are now in force by which the banks are 
able to lend more than double their capital of other 
people's money, besides drawing interest on about 
§400,000,000 of United States bonds. In other 
words, the actual use of money by the national 
banks, as compared with their capital, is multiplied 
twice in loans on deposits, eight-tenths times in 
United States bonds, and one-half times in loans of 
their own money, increasing their actual working 
capital threefold and thirty per cent over; and 
this too, independent of their resources, surplus, 
real estate, and other property. While the people 
are compelled to pay interest on what they owe, 
banking corporations receive interest on their debts. 
While the people cannot borrow on half of their 
capital, the banking corporations can loan on more 
than three times their working capital, and get in- 
terest on all their loans. 

By laws now existing, bonds greatly below par 
were purchased with money purposely depreciated. 
These bonds were made solvent by the solemn 
pledge of the government, by becoming a part of 
the Constitution, and then greatly enhanced in 



840 SYNOPSIS. 

value by declaring them payable in coin, or its 
equivalent; and by the demonetization of silver 
they were further increased in value, until they 
command a premium of from 10 to 25 per cent 
above gold coin. And all this increase in the value 
of the people's debt without any benefit whatever 
to the people themselves, which means taking that 
much from labor. 

(3.) By which individuals and corporations 
have been given the ownership, control, and 
operation of lines for travel, transportation, and 
communication of intelligence, and all the bene- 
fits of the same. 

Railways have been declared public highways by 
the highest authority of the government and the 
right of the States to control them. " I hold," says 
Judge Black, " that a railroad charter without a 
reasonable limit to charge is void. The road is not 
a public highway if the managers charge just what 

they please To say the State cannot save the 

people from such extortion and fraud is to utter a 
preposterous absurdity. By the right of eminent 
domain the State always has the power to abate a 
monopoly." And yet the corporations continue to 
defy the courts when their decisions are averse to 
their interests, and employ means to secure im- 
munities and privileges by the courts. 

Judge Black continues: "Mr. Go wen [President 
of the Beading Railroad Company] says the rail- 
roads have great power with the courts. I don't 
know how that is, but really they are weak and 
powerless in any issue that brings them before 
the people. For every millionaire, they have 
made a thousand paupers ; for every one they have 



SYNOPSIS. 341 

done a favor to, they have cheated ten thousand ; 
and these are the things that will be remembered in 
a popular issue." 

The telegraph system, which now extends over 
more than one hundred thousand miles of line, 
yields a net revenue of over $6,000,000 a year. By 
it the intelligence of the country is monopolized, and 
all under the control of one man! The evils of 
this may in some degree be perceived, when it is 
considered that such intelligence is so modified by 
falsehood and suppression of facts, that the true 
uses for which it was designed have been perverted, 
and it proves an evil instead of a benefit. 

(4.) For levying duties on imported commodi- 
ties, whereby a burden, ostensibly for revenue, is 
laid on labor instead of on the property of the 
people, and whereby the greater part of the 
tax thus levied goes to further enrich already- 
wealthy corporations at the expense of labor. 

In the early period of our national existence, a 
need was felt to foster and encourage the manufac- 
turing interests of the country. This was before 
corporations were created and while universal in- 
terest was felt in national prosperity. At that 
time labor-saving machinery was in its infancy 
and the profits on capital were small. The duty 
levied was to be added to the price of manufac- 
tured commodities, with the intention of enabling 
the employer to increase the wages of his em- 
ployees, and thus stimulate the industries of the 
nation. 

Besides 3 the duties collected on foreign imports 
would serve as a revenue for the general govern- 



842 synopsis. 

ment. Thus a convenient means for obtaining a 
revenue would be added to the aid and encourage- 
ment in the manufacturing industries of the coun- 
try. 

The introduction of labor-saving machinery has 
rendered in a great measure the capitalist indepen- 
dent of manual labor ; and the result is a material 
lessening in the demand for it ; the aggregation of 
capital by corporate power increasing their means 
for utilizing machinery in the production of wealth, 
together with the continued immigration of the 
labor element, while shutting out foreign manufac- 
tures, have enabled the home manufactuers to con- 
trol the labor element, and reduce it to absolute 
dependence on the capitalists, who exercise entire 
control over the manufacturing interests of the 
country. 

Duties are laid on the most common necessaries 
of life, and since the great mass of consumers con- 
stitute the laboring element, the greater burden 
falls on them ; and since the tax thus levied is 
added in marking the price, it goes to the manu- 
facturer. The poor and miserable condition of 
wage-laborers and their continued strikes for 
higher wages corroborate the statement above 
made. Thus it is seen that the tariff laws, however 
just and needful in the early existence of our gov- 
ernment, are means now to enrich capitalists at the 
expense of the toilers of the land. 

AND SUBSTITUTING 

For such abrogated powers, by constitutional 
and legislative provisions — 

(1.) The election of all public officers directly 
by the citizens. 



synopsis. 343 

Since the relation is direct and the responsibility 
of officers is due to the people, their selection and 
appointment should be direct. 

(2.) A system by which the choice of the 
people can be expressed in the selection of can- 
didates for office. 

The convention system has serious and fatal de- 
fects. Conventions are managed and manipulated by 
party bosses and corporation tools in the interest of 
their masters, and the people are compelled to ac- 
cept what they consider a less evil to avoid a 
greater. The selection of candidates is governed 
by their disposition and means to serve the man- 
agers and the party selecting them, coupled with 
their availability — that is, the power they have to 
hoodwink the people and secure their votes. 

(3.) A method by which proportional repre- 
sentation can be secured. 

In a sovereign jurisdiction, in which but one 
officer for the discharge of a prescribed duty is re- 
quired, he is to be elected by a majority of the 
votes cast in that jurisdiction ; but in the case of a 
number for the performance of a common duty, as 
boards of supervisors or a legislature, it is just to 
provide for a method by which all parties can be 
represented. To illustrate : a county has, say, 3,000 
voters, of which 1,300 are Democrats, 1,100 Repub- 
licans, and 600 Independents. Say there are five 
supervisors to be elected. Dividing the 3,000 by 
5 gives a quotient of 600. Let 600 elect a can- 
didate, a little more or less. The Democrats would 
see that by this rule they could elect but two, and 
would concentrate their numerical strength on any 



344 synopsis. 

two they might select. The Republicans would do 
the same, and the Independents would unite on one 
candidate. The result would be the election of 
two in the nearly balanced parties, and one Inde- 
pendent, and all would be proportionally repre- 
sented. As no one should be deprived of his rights 
because he is in the minority, he is entitled to repre- 
sentation when no others' rights are injured. 

Of course, this method would necessitate the ob- 
literation of all district lines within the jurisdiction, 
and that would be proper, because the duties of the 
office are the same in all. In state and national 
offices these principles would apply. As the law 
now is, in the case of the election of supervisors 
above supposed, the 1,300 Democrats would elect 
the whole live, and the 1,700 other voters would 
have no representation. The disparity would in- 
crease as the number of parties increased. 

(4.) The free exercise of the elective of fran- 
chise by all citizens, without regard to sex. 

For the last thirty years, the subject of female 
suffrage has been under discussion. The progress 
made toward its consummation is cheering and 
gratifying ; and the day cannot be far distant when 
sex will be no barrier to the exercise of a right 
which will be doubled in value to all : not by dou- 
bling its power by numbers, but by the quality of 
virtue it will impart to the ballot. 

Wrongs which shock the sensitive mind, pollute 
the social circle, and force their way into the sa- 
cred precincts of home, corrupt public morals, 
impoverish, degrade, and debase mankind, and 
sustained by the ballots of men, would be swept 
out of existence, could the intelligent and virtuous 
will of woman be enforced by her ballot. The 



synopsis. 345 

moral atmosphere would be purified, and with its 
purification would disappear drunkenness, debauch- 
ery, and a long list of crimes that disgrace manhood, 
enfeeble the race, and threaten a relapse into bar- 
barism. 

Whenever woman's political power has been ex- 
erted, a marked improvement has resulted, and the 
nation only waits the full exercise of her natural 
rights to realize the full fruition of the nation's 
glory. f 

(5.) For local government in local affairs, and 
for the exercise of sovereignty in the county, 
state, and nation. 

The people are sovereign by virtue of their nat- 
ural rights, and the necessity of their full exercise 
in the enjoyment of " life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness." The exercise of sovereign powers 
in the capacity of county government will not con- 
flict with that of state; neither will the exercise of 
state sovereignty conflict with that of national, 
because the functions of each do not conflict with 
any others. County government is organized for 
certain specific purposes, and functions prescribed 
for their performance cannot interfere with those 
of the state. The state is organized with certain 
prescribed functions; they cannot be performed by 
a county or a nation. Likewise, a national govern- 
ment is instituted for purposes that cannot be ac- 
complished by a state government.- Hence we 
have distinct sovereignties, which are supreme in 
their respective spheres. 

(6.) For revenue, local, state, and national, 
by direct tax on the property of the people. 
15* 



346 synopsis. 

The abolition of the tariff system would relieve 
the people of a heavy burden, to say nothing of the 
political corruption it engenders. Direct tax on 
the property of the people would equalize the bur- 
den of revenue. For national purposes, a tax of 
one-half of one per cent, say on an assessment of 
$30,000,000,000, would yield a revenue of $150,000,- 
000; and this ought to defray the yearly expendi- 
tures of the Federal Government. Indeed, with the 
changes here advocated, one-fifth of it would suffice. 
This could be assessed and collected along with 
state and county taxes, and segregated as our state 
tax is from the county tax, with only this addi- 
tional labor and expense to the Federal Government. 
The cost of collecting the customs duties amounts 
to many millions annually. The justice, benefits, 
and advantages of direct taxation are so great and 
so apparent, that it requires no argument for their 
support. 

(7.) For the recall and discharge from public 
service any officer when a majority of his con- 
stituents demand such recall and discharge ; and 
a penalty attached to the offense for which he 
was recalled and discharged. 

This provision is just and reasonable. The ser- 
vant agrees and undertakes to perform a certain 
service. In the violation of his agreement he for- 
feits his contract, and in addition, he is guilty of 
treachery, which incurs a penalty. 

By the existing system, instead of feeling the 
obligation of duty to his constituents, he elevates 
himself above them, and too often sells the powers 
delegated to him for his own benefit. The liberty 
to use his own discretion is turned into a license te 



synopsis. 347 

intrigue to further his ambitious schemes and pro- 
mote the interests of his party. Therefore, the 
recall, discharge, and punishment of this class of 
offenders are just and necessary. 

(8.) For the reduction of all salaries and 
compensations for public services to the scale of 
the natural ability of such person holding public 
office to produce wealth by his labor. 

The high salaries of office are among the most 
prolific sources of corruption that disgrace our 
political system. There is no reason why a person 
should receive more compensation for serving the 
people than for serving himself. His labor pro- 
duces a certain value for whomever performed. 
The strifes for high salaries engender and intensify 
party spirit, which too often flames into passion ; 
then reason flees, and the wily politician succeeds 
in his schemes of personal aggrandizement, or in 
serving his master. 

Those who now seek office for the pay that is in 
it would give way to honest men who are actuated 
by a desire to advance the interests of his fellow- 
men, if no magnet in the shape of big salaries did 
nor exist to attract him there. Such reduction 
would tend to the purity of the ballot more than 
any other one cause. 

(9.) For the establishment of a system of 
arbitration, by which all causes at issue and con- 
troversies between individuals shall be adjusted 
in accordance with the promptings of natural jus- 
tice and upon the particular merits of each 
individual case ; the apprehension, trial, and clis- 



348 synopsis. 

position of criminals ; and for the adjustment of 
disputes and issues wherein a citizen is a party 
and the county, state, or nation the contestant ; 
a county with another county, a state, or the 
nation ; or a state with another or the nation — are 
respectively the parties in issue. 

The abrogation of our existing judiciary system 
necessitates the adoption of a method of adjudica- 
tion that will secure justice to all parties. The ad- 
vantages of a system as here indicated secure it 
from the evils of our present judiciary. First, it 
has for its aim justice, while the courts only aim 
at the administration of law. Second, it tends to 
peace and harmony among the people, while the 
courts of law encourage dishonesty and crime in 
creating or suppressing testimony when the case 
urgently demands it. Third, it settles at once and 
forever the matter in dispute on its own merits, 
therefore requires no law save that of justice, no 
interpretation of former decisions, because it rests 
upon its own merits, while in courts of law the 
temptation for quibbles and pretenses, dodges and 
delays, is so strong that yielding to them is the 
common custom. Fourth, it is simj)le, cheap, and 
easy, while the courts of law are so intricate, com- 
plicated, and difficult that a class of skilled experts 
have to be employed who demand as their compen- 
sation for their service such exorbitant fees that they 
are enabled to live in wealth and luxury at the ex- 
pense of their clients. Fifth, it would dispense with 
a large and influential class of men whose interests 
and aims are in perpetuating existing conditions, 
by which swindling and robbery are carried on in 
the name oi and through the instrumentality of 



synopsis. 349 

law. This class of men, skilled in the intricacies 
and subtleties of an exclusive craft, are the conven- 
ient and efficient agents of a government of organ- 
ized greed, of which the wage-earner and wealth- 
producer are the victims. In the name of the 
public good and by its authority, they enact and 
enforce laws for the benefit of the few, by which 
robbery is legalized, powers belonging to the people 
are usurped, and labor enslaved. All the legisla- 
tion in the world, supported by the decision of 
every court in existence, cannot make a wrong right. 

(10.) For owning, controlling, and operating 
all public highways and lines of communication 
by water, as railroads, canals, navigable streams, 
lakes and coasts ; and all means for the transmis- 
sion of intelligence, as postal routes, telegraphs, 
and telephones, by the government. 

The rapid advancement of the railroad corpora- 
tions, and their consolidation into a system for 
mutual advantage and defense, excites alike the 
surprise and alarm of all who desire the welfare of 
their country and humanity. A railroad is a per- 
manent thing, and becomes a geographical feature 
of the country, and materially affects the value of 
land by the facilities it affords for the markets and 
travel, like that of a navigable stream. Postal 
routes, public schools, sanitary regulations, and 
means for defense and administration of the law 
are owned, controlled, supported, and operated by 
government means. The adoption by the govern- 
ment of all lines of travel, transporation, and intel- 
ligence would complete the category, and secure to 
all the equal benefits derived from these enter- 



350 SYHOPSIS. 

prises. The corporations that now control them, 
and by which millions upon millions are unjustly 
taken to enrich the corporators, would be changed 
into a co-operative system in which all would be 
equal beneficiaries; for, as has been stated, the 
very purposes for which popular government is in- 
stituted are the regulation of natural rights, and 
the protection of the citizens in their full and free 
exercise, and the security of all in equal opportuni- 
ties. 

The absorption of wealth in the hands of a few 
necessarily defeats the purposes of the people in 
their attempts to establish free government; for 
freedom depends on equality ; and equality cannot 
exist when wealth is accumulated in few hands; 
for upon it class distinctions are built up; the few 
become rulers, and the many their dupes and 
slaves. 

By controlling the lines for the transmission of 
intelligence by private corporations, free and truth- 
ful communication is prevented, and false state- 
ments are published and true ones suppressed. In 
this way, false notions and errors are propa- 
gated, and reform seriously retarded. Public con- 
trol of lines for intelligence would remove this 
barrier to reform — a necessary condition in the work 
of reconstruction. 

(11.) For the occupation and use of the pub- 
lic domain by the citizens of the government, 
and the adoption of measures for the restoration 
of all lands granted to corporations and obtained 
by individuals now unoccupied and held for rent 
or speculation, to the use and benefit of the peo- 
ple. 



SYNOPSIS. 351 

The necessity of this measure is apparent when 
it is considered that land is the source and support 
of life ; and he who holds it holds and controls the 
lives of those who are dependent upon it. Land 
being a fixed quantity, its value increases as popu- 
lation increases ; and as life is dependent on it, the 
power of the holder over others increases with the 
increase of its value. 

The conditions upon which a greater portion of 
the public lands were granted have not been ful- 
filled, and should revert to the public domain ; 
the reversion has been hedged in by a resolution of 
Congress to the effect that no grant, however 
palpable the fact of the non-fulfillment of its con- 
ditions by the grantee, it cannot revert to the gov- 
ernment without a declaration of such non-fulfill- 
ment by the joint action of Congress. Millions of 
acres are thus withheld from occupancy and use in 
which not a move has been made to perform the 
conditions ■ of the grant, and the time specified in 
the charter expired years ago, in which the condi- 
tions were to be fulfilled, and still awaiting the 
action of Congress. 

It has been the policy of the government until 
recently to prohibit the right of aliens to hold land, 
but of late, the title to millions of acres has been 
granted to foreign lords and dukes, who will occu- 
py them with English tenantry, and thus extend 
English rule upon American soil. 

(12.) For an efficient system of education, by 
which all the people shall be duly and thoroughly 
qualified for all their duties, public and private, 
and for the exercise of all their rights and 
privileges. 



352 synopsis. 

The condition of a people is determined by the 
status of their education, politically, socially, and 
financially. The educational agencies that deter- 
mine the status of a people are far more numerous 
and potent than those prescribed in the ordinary 
school curriculum. By the scramble for wealth, 
selfishness is developed, and selfishnesses the great 
drawback to individual advancement. The pursuit 
of wealth, as the aim and object of life, is vitiating 
and degrading; the production of wealth as a 
means of life is laudable and necessary : vitiating 
because it develops selfishness ; degrading because 
it engenders a lust for power and dominion which 
characterize the tyrant, or contracts its unfortunate 
owner to that of a miser. Besides, its successful 
accumulation deprives others who need a portion 
of it of its proper use. The accumulation of 
wealth by unequal exchange is robbery; in other 
words, to take without giving an equal value by 
fraud is swindling ; by force, is robbery ; neither of 
which would be possible if the people were properly 
educated. The use of wealth now employed is to 
accumulate more wealth, to exercise control over 
others, and to serve as the basis of American aris- 
tocracy. The true use of wealth, aside from ade- 
quate subsistence, is in the development of all the 
powers and faculties of the individual. It is the 
culture and rounding out, the refinement and har- 
monious relation, of all the attributes of the being 
to the full capacity of each. 

The intellect observes, conceives, reasons, ar- 
ranges, and classifies knowledge ; the moral powers 
deal in social relations based upon the require- 
ments of justice and the regulation of domestic 
affairs; the aesthetic relates to the beautiful in 
nature and art — scenery, flowers, sculpture, paint- 



synopsis. 353 

mgs, music. These elevate, purify, refine, and 
polish, and add greatly to the pleasures and enjoy- 
ments of life. The spiritual has reference to the 
interior life, and relation to the life after death. 
All blend and unite in each properly educated and 
cultured individual. Thus the purposes of life are 
fully accomplished, and each passes on to his just 
reward. 

In view of the blessings arising from the exercise 
of our natural rights in the enjoyment of personal 
liberty in all the means of life, the free use of God's 
gifts to man, and the inherent capacity of man for 
unfoldment in his intellectual powers, whereby the 
secrets of nature are unveiled and her forces 
evolved and applied for his benefit, and for the ex- 
ercise of his political rights in devising measures for 
the advancement of industry, commerce, and edu- 
cation, we deem it necessary, in order to realize 
these blessings, to labor for their realization, fully 
convinced that i£ we would be free, we must take 
the work of reform in our own hands, and forever 
relinquish the hope of reformation from the politi- 
cal forces now in existence. 

We contemplate these things in the ideal with 
the vague hope that sometime and in some way 
they may be real. History and experience teach us 
that blessings come to those who take them, who 
provide for them by the means appointed by a wise 
providence. They will never come to those who 
wait for them. The poet sings of the noble, heroic 
deeds of our forefathers; the orator in glowing 
terms recounts their struggles, their suffering, and 
their sacrifices ; we wave banners and fire cannon 
in celebration of their deeds, but do nothing for 
ourselves. They did their duty well : let us do 
ours ; for we have a duty to perform, not upon the 



354: synopsis. 

battle-field, nor in the council-chamber. The work 
is in brains, illumination, and heart purification. 

"We live in deeds, not years. We should count 
Time by heart-throbs, not by figures 
On the dial-plate. He lives most 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, 
Acts the best." 

Their work was to break the bonds imposed by- 
royal prerogative and " vested'' rights: ours to 
preserve the liberty thus gained ; they put the bal- 
lot in our hands, and charged us with the power of 
self-protection by its judicious use. Rejoicing in 
the liberty they won, we forget that it is in the 
use of the ballot, not its possession^ that our liber- 
ties are to be preserved. They gave us the example, 
the lesson : it is for us to profit by the one and 
learn from the other. To enjoy the fruits of their 
labor, we must labor likewise. We must think as 
they did; we must feel as they did; we must 
value our liberties as they did theirs : and then we 
will do as they did. The enemy they fought was 
clothed with kingly authority; ours, in corporate 
power : the one is vested by a long line of inheri- 
tance, the other is a usurpation of natural rights ; 
the one is essential to monarchical government, 
the other destructive to a true republic. 






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